Star Fox Legacies Vol 1: Sojourn's End
by ninjafoxshadow
Summary: Four years after the Anglar War; Krystal works as a bounty hunter, trusting no one, looking out only for herself. But when she steps into the aftermath of a bloody civil war, could the people she meets revive her old spirit -- or crush it for good?
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

_The Anglar War was a time of great upheaval in the Lylat system. Although peace has returned following the defeat of the Anglar Emperor at the hands of the elite Star Wolf squadron, the way of life for many of the citizens has yet to return to normal. The legendary Star Fox team, longtime protectors of both Corneria and the outlying sectors as well, has disbanded, and no one is sure how well Star Wolf will perform as the new, self-appointed heroes of Lylat. _

_Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi, ace pilots, good friends, and longtime members of Star Fox, have disappeared from all public view. They have made their way to the outlying planet of Papetoon, after their own long and ultimately futile mission to overthrow the Anglars themselves. Falco watched in growing concern as his friend slipped further and further into depression, until finally he suggested that the two of them enter into the G-Zero grand prix races. Fox jumped at the idea, mostly because training for the races and modifying their fighters into racing vehicles would keep him too busy to think about the past… and the public rejection of him by his beloved, Krystal. _

_As for Krystal herself… she thought her new affiliation with Star Wolf would be the end of her sorrows. Instead, they had only just begun. Haunted by the vicious reaction of Corneria's citizens to her abandonment of her old team, she flees Lylat entirely, forsaking her old life, her old relationships, even her old identity. Assuming the name of Kursed instead, she makes her living as a bounty hunter, tracking down and apprehending the vilest of criminals. Eventually she makes her way to the planet of Kew, a world awash in turmoil, where law is only marginally enforced and whose citizens have only just recently overthrown a brutal dictatorship. Here is her story…_


	2. A Chance Meeting

**Chapter 1: A Chance Meeting**

The bounty hunter known as Kursed stepped into the elevator. It had been another successful hunt – another despicable criminal brought to justice – yet neither that knowledge, nor the thrill of accomplishing another mission, could alleviate the gloom that filled her thoughts. The clerk that had signed off on the bounty – one of the furless humans that were apparently the most populous race in this sector – had commented on the rate of her successes. "Three captures in under a month – I don't know who you are or where you're from, but I thank whatever deities that exist that you're here" had been his exact words. His words had been the catalyst for her current dark mood. She didn't know which gods, or spirits, or whatever existed out there, but if any of them had a hand to play in the events that had brought her to this sector of space, they were certainly _not_ to be thanked. Once, long ago, she'd had friends and someone who loved her – she thought. That was another lifetime ago. Things had changed, and certainly not for the better. Now she was utterly alone in the universe; hated by some, despised by others, and feared by many who hardly knew who she was except by rumors spread by idle gossipers.

She caught a glimpse of her reflection on the back wall of the elevator. Aqua-green eyes stared back at her, framed by a head of short, dark blue hair that was the same color as the fur that covered most of her body. The color shaded to white on her face and belly, and at the end of her tail. She possessed an undeniably feminine figure, and a trim, athletic build that many other females might envy. Although she realized that she still looked the same as she had before…there was something about herself that she did not like to see. The wide-eyed, innocent look she had before was gone, eradicated by heartbreak and rejection, and in its place was a cold, indifferent scowl that she never would have thought would become her default expression. Her thoughts drifted back in time, to the day life as she had known it effectively ended…

"_What?!"_

"_I said, I think it would be better if you left the team."_

"_How could you possibly think that? What did I do wrong?"_

"_Nothing...I just…it would be better this way. It would be safer…for both of us" _

"_How can you think that…how could you do this to me?" _

_She couldn't think of anything more to say, shock and dismay stifling any further words. She took one last look at the man she had loved, who she thought had loved her. Abruptly, she turned and fled, tears streaming down her face. She lost track of time, finally coming to a stop in a deserted back alley. She let all her heartache out in that alley, sobbing brokenheartedly until she could cry no longer. After a time, she felt her sorrow fading, to be replaced by a cold, seething anger. "Fine, Fox. If you don't think you need me anymore, then I certainly don't need you. If this is how you treat those who love you, then I want nothing more to do with you." _

Abruptly, the images in her view began to waver and blur. She furiously blinked away the tears that brimmed in her eyes, and quickly wiped away the ones that had managed to escape down her face. In her line of work, displays of feeling were a danger, a weakness she could not afford to show, lest a target see them and use them against her. She looked again, managing to set the mask of cold indifference she habitually wore back into place by the time 

the elevator doors opened into the main entryway. But that was all it was, was a mask that served to conceal just how wounded in spirit she still felt, even after all these years.

She stepped out into the foyer of Kew's central government building complex. It was relatively clean, free of dust or battle damage, which meant that it had either been spared from recent conflict or more likely, had been quickly repaired. Other buildings, some only a block away, weren't so fortunate: Kew was a world in turmoil. Although she had only been in the region a few months, she had already overheard many of its more cynical citizens' remarks about how the planet's name related to the frequent and less-than-peaceful changes of government it went through. It seemed to be pure coincidence that she had just arrived after the latest and possibly the longest of these revolutions. The new (newest) regime had most of its own hands full trying to rebuild after years of intermittent warfare, and so had posted enough warrants and bounties on members of the old regime to keep any number of hunters active for the rest of their lives.

The sun was setting as she left the building, setting the sky and a few clouds afire with pastel reds, oranges, pinks, and dark blues. It was beautiful, and she paused to admire it, glad for at least one bright spark of joy in an otherwise depressing day. Such moments were to be cherished, as they were few and very far between. The day was ending, and at this time of the year, the nights were still chill. She wandered the streets at random, with no particular destination in mind. She was, to tell the truth, at loose ends at the moment. Although the first few bounties on the main "wanted" list had come quickly and relatively easily, that had been because they were careless. The rest seemed to be more diligent in covering their tracks, and she had no idea where to begin to find them. As reluctant as she was to trust anyone else's words on anything she couldn't verify herself, it appeared that she needed to find an information broker. They were often as not, expensive, and difficult to find on top of that, but she had plenty of money to spare, and needed a good lead if she was to continue her chosen line work here.

The smell of food of some sort wafting from a nearby building provided a welcome distraction to her current line of thought. A sudden growl from her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten a thing all day. Of course, anyone who cared to spend even five minutes in the company of her previous quarry would understand her lack of appetite until just now. He had been a singularly vile specimen of the human race, a minor bureaucrat of the old regime and a man she only refused to label a "toad" out of respect for a previous acquaintance. The food smelled good, and there appeared to be few people inside at this time of the day, so she decided to duck inside and see what the menu offered.

The inside of the restaurant – pub, she amended, seeing a currently unattended bar off to the side – was a bit dim, even compared with the evening lighting outside, and also a bit on the small side of things, but it was much warmer and seemed incongruously tidy, compared with some of the damage she had seen outside. A few patrons sat at tables with meals in front of them, and most of the people who weren't actively eating were clustered in small groups chatting softly among themselves. A few of them nursed drinks they had to have obtained from the bar, but no one was knocking down shots in quick succession, so the place was 

probably safe enough to linger for a while. She walked over to the counter and began perusing the menu.

"May I help you, miss?" inquired a voice. She looked up to see another human, a stocky, somewhat bronze-skinned, dark-haired man in his middle years, wearing a slightly stained apron and a chef's hat. She stifled the icy remark that seemed to almost reflexively come from her mouth; he _was_ being polite, and the least she could do in return was not bite his head off because she didn't feel social at the moment.

"What's in this one?" she inquired. She could pronounce the words on the menu just fine, but they seemed to be in a different dialect than the one most widely spoken here, and she had no idea what they meant. The man behind the counter began to describe the contents of the main courses on the menu, although she still didn't quite understand what everything meant. After he finished, she pointed to another item and said, "This one looks good."

"Ah, this is a favorite here," replied the man, and he went back into the kitchen. "It will take a few minutes to prepare. Will you be eating here or taking it elsewhere?"

She paused, unsure of what to do. "Ah, can I decide later?" she asked.

"You certainly may; however, I will need to know your answer before your order is ready," came the prompt reply.

"I'm going to wait over there," she said, pointing in the direction of the bar.

"Oh, have you met Shadow, yet?" inquired the chef.

"Who?" she asked.

"You'll see soon enough," he replied, with a look that seemed to suggest this was an inside joke to him.

Uncertain of what to make of this statement, she drifted in the direction of the still-vacant bar. It was set a bit further into the wall, making it seem a separate place unto itself, even though there were no walls or other barriers to mark it off from the main eating area. Finding a seat that would allow her an unobstructed view of the entire restaurant, she waited while the food that she ordered was prepared.

"Well, look who's here; it's the new gun in town," said a deeper, baritone voice from behind her. She jumped and spun around, hand reaching for her sidearm. She arrested the motion when she saw that the speaker had his hands resting on top of the counter, and that he appeared to be unarmed.

The speaker was another fox, completely black from head to toe. He stood at least half a head taller than she did, and had a wiry but very muscular build. When she looked at his face she noticed two things immediately; he had a scar that ran down his forehead, across his left eye, and down his muzzle, and the eye itself was a flat grey in color; unlike his other one, which was a clear, bright blue. The expression on his face suggested a detached curiosity.

"That's a very good way to get shot!" she snapped, rattled by the fact that he had been able to sneak up behind her without her even noticing his approach.

"My apologies for startling you, then," he said evenly. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Something without alcohol," she replied flatly. "Preferably something warm; it's chilly outside."

"How about this one?" he said, indicating a picture on a menu near the counter. The liquid was an odd color of green, but it still seemed appealing.

"Green tea? I'll try it," she answered.

"One hot green tea coming up," he announced. "Oh, while I'm preparing it, I think Tony needs your decision now."

Looking over at the food counter, she saw the chef waving for her attention. "Alright, I'll be right back." She made her way towards the man at the back. "I'll eat at the bar," she told him. He nodded in acknowledgement, and pulled out a tray to set her order on. She grabbed the tray as soon as everything was assembled, and headed back towards the bar, with its mysterious tender who seemed to know more about her than he'd let on.

"You must be Shadow," she guessed, after setting her tray down at the seat she had vacated previously. "You seem to know a lot about me."

"Good guess on my name," he replied. "Tony must have told you that. As for my knowledge…I make it my business to know everything there is to know about everything worth knowing. "

This announcement piqued her professional interest. If he wasn't just boasting… "Really? Perhaps you could help me with some other matters, as well. You see, I seem to be at loose ends on tracking down some people." She pulled a data screen that had the names of the most prominent bounties on the "wanted" lists from the right pocket of her flight jacket. She was about to ask him about some of them when she felt a prickle of warning along her spine. It coincided with a heavy hand that fell on her shoulder and an alcohol-tainted voice that slurred into her ear:

"Hey shugar, why don't you and I find a nishe plashe all to ourshelves?" the speaker drawled. The smell of cheap whiskey on his breath was an assault on her senses.

Fury surged through her. "Take your hands off me," she said coldly.

"Oh, hey, looksh like a lively one here," said the man, a grossly inebriated human who was clearly not an outstanding member of his race.

"I said _take your hands_ _off of me_!" she repeated, at the same time driving an elbow into the man's solar plexus. It made him back off, but not for very long. He came back towards her with a look of drunken lust in his eyes, a look that changed to blank astonishment as she punched him as hard as she could, squarely in the nose. He fell to the floor like all his bones had been removed with that blow, clearly unconscious.

"Nice shot," came Shadow's voice from behind her again. She turned in time to see him vault over the bar and place two fingers against the unconscious drunk's throat. "He'll live, although he'll have a headache that I won't envy him when he wakes up. And it won't be due to a hangover this time." He turned back to her. "Are you okay?" he inquired.

His display of concern took her off guard. "I'm fine," she said. "Are you going to kick me out of here now?"

"Why would I?" was his reply. "If you hadn't decked him, I would have. He's a local troublemaker, you were just defending yourself. Pardon me for a moment; I need to take out the trash." He dragged the obstreperous drunk out to the street by the man's collar, then returned and leapt over the counter back behind the bar. "Still want a lead?"

"Um, just take a look at this and see if there's anything you might know about anyone," she said. She pushed the data screen over to him.

He picked it up and started paging through the various profiles on it, while she ate some of her meal. He cycled through to one entry, and looked at it with a more-than-professional interest. "Ah, General Algus Fant. How about this one?" he said.

She reviewed the listed information on the individual Shadow had indicated: wanted for war crimes and atrocities committed during service as an officer in the previous government. "What can you tell about him?" she asked.

"Let's see, he's got an estate 'gifted' to him by the Purists in the northern latitudes on this continent. The place could be considered a small fortress, and he'll have plenty of guards to help maintain security. I could give you the coordinates of this place, but you won't find it on any official registry."

_Purists? _ She wondered about the use of that term. "That would be very nice," she said out loud. "What would you charge for that information?"

"No charge," he replied.

That made her suspicious. "Why not?" she demanded.

"Consider it a free sample," he said. "Or I could say no charge as an apology for the… inconvenience…earlier."

His dry understatement brought a brief smile of genuine humor. "Thank you, then," she said. She finished her meal and turned to go. Before she left, he added, "Oh, one more thing. General Fant has two major blind spots; his arrogance and his cowardice. He had a tendency to overestimate his enemies, until they got the better of him; then he turned into a frightened coward. He might bluff and bluster if he thinks he has the upper hand, but he's used to having underlings who fight for him while he stays safely out of harm's way. If he's cornered, you can count on him to call for his guards the moment he has a chance. If you can cut off any reinforcements he could call in, you'll have already won."

"How do you know all this?"

"I have my methods and sources," he replied evasively. "I'll never steer you wrong though, you can count on that."

"I'll keep that in mind," she replied.

"See you again soon?" he asked.

She paused to consider his question. "If this information is good… then most definitely yes," she said.

"See you then," he called as she opened the door to leave the building. She began walking at a considerably faster pace than the one with which she had entered the building. At an impulse, she pulled out the data screen again and scrolled to the image of the "Most Wanted" category. "Dackar Maltare, Director of Internal Security" she read, noting that the list under his name disappeared off the bottom of the screen. None of the other wanted individuals had even a paragraph's worth of crimes attributed to them. The human was pictured from the shoulders up, but the look in his eyes, even as a still photo sent a shiver down her spine. This man had the look of a thrill-killer, the sort who would torment small animals and pull the limbs off of insects for sport. She wondered what exactly Shadow had meant when referring to the "Purists", but put the matter aside for the moment. She had plans to make in the morning, a fortress to find and infiltrate… and possibly another bounty to find and collect on.


	3. The Hunter and the Hunted

**Chapter 2: The Hunter and the Hunted**

Kursed brought her fighter to a hover a few kilometers away from the location that Shadow had mentioned. She gently set the craft down to the ground, being as careful as possible to not disturb the foliage with the back draft of her landing thrusters. Although the forest itself would likely heal any damage that she did to it fairly quickly, any fire that started would very likely give her position away to her target. He was probably depending on the secrecy of his sanctuary as his primary defense, and he would bolt in a heartbeat if he thought he'd been found. When the ship was safely on the ground, she unstrapped her safety harness, popped the seals of her cockpit canopy, and leapt agilely to the forest floor.

She paused for a moment to sniff the evening air, searching with both her physical and mental senses for any possible trace of danger. Nothing registered as a likely threat, so she doffed her flight jacket and tossed it back into the pilot's seat. She took off her helmet and placed it on top of the jacket, then resealed the canopy. This left her in what she sardonically thought of as her "hunting" outfit: a black top that left most of her torso bare, but still preserved her modesty while allowing for full freedom of movement; and black, form-hugging pants that began her hips and ended at her ankles. A belt wrapped around her waist, studded with small utility pockets that held any of a number of useful gadgets, and on her right hip was a gun holster, which held a stun pistol. In addition, she wore a compact but powerful comm transmitter on her left wrist. On her feet were lightweight combat shoes that featured non-slip soles. Her tiara and necklace might have been seen as a hazard, allowing her to be seen more easily, but they were the only things besides her staff that she retained from her homeworld, and she could easily make use of the camouflage function of her staff to make herself virtually invisible, anyway.

She pulled her staff from the special sling that held it to her back, and thumbed the toggle switch that extended it to its full length, which was just short of her own height. This device was usually the only weapon she ever needed in battle, using stealth and her own considerable mental powers to avoid drawn-out combat as much as possible. While there might have been some other hunters out there who relied upon heavy weaponry, dozens of gadgets, and high body counts, she preferred to use other means that had served her well over the years; namely stealth, skill, and cunning, as well as her telepathic abilities. There was another motive, as well; although she could kill an enemy who threatened her life without flinching, and could shoot down an opponent in a dogfight without so much as batting an eye, she refused to baptize her current career with blood. Even though the restraint she exercised did make certain tasks harder, she believed that it was the one thing that separated her from any number of heartless killers-for hire. It was the one barrier that had kept her from losing herself completely.

Although the contracts she received were pretty lucrative, she wasn't the sort to splurge on physical pleasures. Most of the money that she received for her jobs went into maintaining and modifying her fighter craft. She turned around to look at her ship. It was a beautiful craft, black with blue trim, with gun pods slung under the wings. She had named it the _Cloud Runner_ after the flying creature it resembled, the pterosaurs of the planet Sauria, in the Lylat system. 

That had been where she'd first met Fox McCloud…. Resolutely she banished those thoughts from her mind. He had decided where his priorities rested, and they had clearly not been with her. That part of her life was over and gone, and she was done with him; with Lylat entirely, since they had essentially cast her out. Now she was left with only herself, her own wits and strengths; no one else would help her.

She focused her mind on the task at hand; infiltrate Algus Fant's estate, find and capture him before he could escape, and try to avoid getting herself killed in the process. If the information that the mysterious black fox known as Shadow was accurate, that estate would be about a kilometer to the northwest. Normally, sensors would have picked up any craft that tried to approach this close to the estate, but her craft's sensor-blocking systems, one of many non-standard upgrades she had made over the years, should prevent most systems from detecting her approach, and the cover of night would allow her to avoid visual detection. Infrared scanners would likely be her biggest problem, but the detailed cartographic information that Shadow had given her included the mention of a stream that ran right up to the building itself, and that now likely served it with fresh water. If she could follow that stream to the building, she would be in a very good position to infiltrate the grounds from an unexpected position.

She found the stream with little trouble, having landed right next to it. It had cut a path through the ground that was deep enough for her to stand on the bank and still be below ground level; this would make it much harder for her to be seen by anyone who wasn't actually looking for an intruder in this area. The stream was at a very low level, with only the deepest part of the channel filled with water; this would make her journey easier, since she could run along the relatively flat part of the dry bed without getting in the water. Although her pants and shoes were supposed to be waterproof when sealed together, they were not designed to insulate against cold temperatures, and she disliked the cold. She loped easily along the bank, a steady pace that was a compromise between speed and energy conservation. At this pace, she should reach her destination in a little under ten minutes.

* * *

"Sir? We have a blip on one of the outer perimeter security scanners."

General Algus Fant strode over to the technician who had called his attention. "What kind of "blip", Lieutenant?"

"One of the infrared scanners picked up a heat signature. It was just there for a second sir, and then it was gone. Should I put Security on alert?"

"No. We've had too many false alarms already; this is probably just another one. This structure is well-shielded from sensors, and its location is top secret. Only a fool would dare infiltrate these grounds alone, and any army large enough to pose a threat will be detected long before it can arrive here."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Kursed looked up at the walls that loomed far above her head. Easily four stories high, they would have been nearly impossible to scale quickly using conventional means. Fortunately for her, the walls weren't so high that she couldn't use the jet booster on her staff to leap over them onto the roof, even from the riverbed. Once on the roof, she could find a way down through the building. She suspected that someone like Fant would be hiding in the basement, below ground level. While her chosen approach would mean that much farther to travel, it would allow her to bypass any defense systems at the ground entrances or along the perimeter.

She locked her grip firmly on the shaft of her staff, then braced herself and thumbed the switch that would activate the booster. A pulse of energy began at the head of her staff, traveled down the shaft until it reached the spear-like point at the other end, and discharged, sending her four-and-a-half stories into the air. She turned a somersault as she landed, bleeding off the momentum of the drop back to the roof. After her landing, she dusted herself off and began searching for a way in.

An entrance proved more evident than she would have thought; a window that had a rusted latch. She wedged the tip of her staff into the gap between the window and the building, and applied leverage. The latch snapped off with a 'crack', and the window swung open. Stepping over the sill, she wondered about the lack of evident security measures, given that her target was supposed to be borderline-paranoid about trespassers. She stopped for a moment to expand her mind, searching for any sign of alarm or the sense of guards stalking an intruder. Neither seemed evident, so she continued on. As a precaution, though, she took the time to activate the camouflage function on her staff. It had started out as a holo-cloak projection that covered the image of the user with another form, but had subsequently been altered to simply render the user invisible to the naked eye for a short period of time. She moved in carefully, so as not to alert any guards.

The vixen's caution proved to be well-founded. In just the next room over, two guards stood at the doorway, grumbling about being posted in such an out-of-the-way location. Their backs were to her, allowing her to sneak up close behind them. The armor-weave vests that they wore were probably intended to absorb energy beams, and maybe stop projectiles, but the flexible material they were made from would barely lessen the effect of a physical blow. The first guard received a vicious blow to the back of his neck, dropping him straight to the floor. The second tried to draw his sidearm, but a thrust of the staff into his solar plexus, followed by a backswing into his jaw, sent him to join his partner on the floor. Kursed stopped to assess the situation; neither man had been able to call for help before they were neutralized, and both had been dealt with swiftly and silently. Unless they were supposed to check in soon, her presence would still be unnoticed. She continued on through the hallways, looking for a stairwell that would take her down to the next story.

* * *

"Sir, we have a security breach!"

"_What_?! Show me!" Fant was both alarmed and furious. He had thought the location of his sanctuary was known only to a small group of loyalists, who should be lying low at this point in time. There was only one person he knew of who knew the secret and had no inclination to _keep_ it a secret, but he was presumed dead. There should have been no one who could have stumbled onto this location and who would be able to avoid the security systems intended to keep unwanted visitors away. Yet, improbably, the security monitor showed the bodies of two guards near the third-floor stairwell, either unconscious or dead.

"Who is it?" he asked no one in particular. "Who dares trespass in my sanctuary?"

"We caught a short glimpse in earlier footage, sir. I can recall the video," said the lieutenant that currently served as the monitor technician. He backtracked the video feed until he found what he was looking for. Fant leaned in closely to study the image; a lone blue vixen, holding an unbelievably primitive-looking staff, dressed in an abbreviated version of a black sneak-suit. Fant's eyes narrowed in contempt. "One intruder? A lone half-beast, and a _female _on top of that? Who does she think she is, coming here all alone? Alert all the guards, tell them I want this intruder slain or captured at once!" Fant was outraged, but beneath his bluster he was frightened. That this intruder had been able to get this far before being detected spoke to exceptional skill and resources on her part, and he was debating the merits of fleeing this place before she could get to him.

"Yes sir," the technician replied dutifully. He turned to the public address channel in the communication system. "Attention all sentries, there is an intruder currently on the third floor. Find and neutralize her at once, one way or another."

* * *

Kursed paused in mid-stride, her telepathic senses alerting her to a change in the general atmosphere of the area. She half-closed her eyes and concentrated…yes, it seemed that evidence of her presence had been detected. She had tried to be careful about leaving no signs, but she wasn't so naïve or arrogant as to think she would be able to evade detection forever. It seemed, however, that instead of running, they were trying to hunt her down. She smiled grimly to herself. The focused thoughts of guards on a search-and-destroy mission would betray their locations and numbers to her like a signal flare; she could avoid them if they were too many for her, and isolate and take them out when they were in smaller groups.

There was one group of four guards coming her way at the moment. She guessed that they hadn't been able to pinpoint her location, and were trying to hunt her down through sheer force of numbers. She activated her camouflage, waited in a side room while the guards strode past, and then stepped out behind them, quiet as a whisper of wind.

They never had a chance. The first two fell to surprise attacks from behind, as she brought the heavy cap of her staff down on their heads. The third was turning to face this new threat and received the staff across his face for his trouble. They all fell to the ground, out of the fight for the duration. The last guard had backpedalled to put some distance between him and this threat, and was reaching for his sidearm when she loosed a bolt of energy from the end of her staff. The fire blast grazed the arm that was reaching for the pistol; he howled in agony as blisters rose along his arm, and dropped the gun and clutched his injured appendage to his chest. He looked up to see the still-glowing tip of the staff pointed directly at his face, held by a vixen with an ice-cold expression on her face.

"You seem like a smart man," she said, in an equally frosty tone. "Tell me where Fant is hiding, and I'll let you go. If you give me trouble, however…" She sent a bolt sizzling into the floor beside him to underline her point. The human flinched as a splinter from the boards nicked his cheek. She could sense his thought processes, weighing whether or not to tell her what he knew versus the chance she'd blow his head off if he didn't. What he couldn't know, however, was that by merely thinking about the information, he'd already given it to her. Eventually, however, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

"He's in the basement," the guard conceded. "But you'll never reach him; there are too many guards and security systems. You'll be cut down before you get three steps in."

"Your concern for my safety is touching," she said sarcastically. She drew the stun pistol from its holster and hit him with a median-level blast – enough to keep him down for a good fifteen minutes without seriously endangering his nervous system. Although she wasn't _overly_ fond of leaving an enemy alive behind her back, she was true to her word. She pulled the comm unit from his belt, clicked it over to 'receive', and then snapped the switch off; now she could eavesdrop on the communications that the unit received without risking any noise that would betray her whereabouts to the searchers. She dialed the volume down and listened briefly to the conversations on the band waves. There appeared to be four groups of four guards each, patrolling the first and second floors, with the remainder of the guards stationed near the entrances to Fant's hiding place.

She activated the camouflage again, after making sure that the energy drain wouldn't tax the staff's reserves too much. In dire circumstances, she could use her own power to energize the staff and use its abilities, but that came at the cost of draining significant strength from her body; an outcome devoutly to be avoided when not necessary. She stopped to think for a moment; reaching out with her mind, she probed the area for thought patterns, looking for one in particular. There was the focused concentration of the search parties; the bored resignation of the stationary sentries; and one mind that held a combination of arrogance and condescension, disguising fear that was starting to edge towards panic. She smiled to herself, and it was far from a pleasant expression. "Found you," she whispered.

Although many humans seemed to deny it, they still held the same survival instincts as any other creature; one of these was the fight-or-flight response. Shadow was right; Fant was too used to having his underlings do the fighting for him. While he would put up a struggle if cornered, his first impulse would be to flee. All she had to do was determine which direction he would flee in, be there when he decided to bolt, and she would have her quarry, and a bounty that was worth more than all the others she had brought in so far combined.

Set into the far wall was a device typically found only in the wealthier homes; a mechanical dumbwaiter. It gave her an idea; she wedged herself inside the contraption and set it running. The miniature elevator carried her down past the search parties and into the basement level. From there, she worked her way around through the halls, taking care not to be seen by the sentries and using her camouflage as needed when she had to cross an observed space. The dim red emergency lighting actually helped her in this endeavor, since it was harder to see the distortion waves that the stealth field emitted in low light. The basement level seemed to be composed of several hallways that circled around a centrally located, fortified bunker complex. She placed small remote charges, that she carried in pockets on her utility belt, in strategic places, intending to use them to startle her quarry into flight rather than actually demolish something. Then she made her way around to what she strongly suspected was Fant's bolt hole.

Upon entering the passageway, she discovered a small, one-person skimmer, of the kind usually meant for commuting within a heavily urban environment. She guessed that it was meant only to take its occupant to a more robust escape craft hidden somewhere in the forest. It was the work of only a few moments to pull a few circuits and disable the skimmer. Kursed activated the comm unit on her left wrist, and triggered the explosives she had carefully set around the central compound. After that, all she had to do was wait.

Her plan worked perfectly. The apprehension in Fant's mind blossomed into full-blown panic, and, after issuing orders to the rest of his guards to repair the damage and cover his escape, he started coming her way. 'Like clapping your hands behind a frog to make it jump into a net,' she thought to herself, and her opinion of Fant dropped another notch. She activated her camouflage one last time, and stepped back into the shadows of the entryway. Only a minute later, a rotund and bald-headed human came running down the hallway as fast as he could. He sealed the door behind himself, then jumped on the skimmer and tried to start it. His eyes widened with horror as he realized that it wouldn't start; he hammered a fist on the console and swore vehemently in several languages.

"I think it's broken," she said as the cloaking field dissolved around her and she stepped into view. Fant actually yelped in shock and fumbled for a device hanging from his belt. She raised her staff and prepared to activate the force field in it, but hesitated as Fant manically thumbed a switch on the device – a switch that, to her knowledge, did absolutely nothing. "I think that's broken, too." She took two strides towards him and swung her staff in a low arc; it cut his knees out from under him and dumped him straight on his generous bottom.

Fant blubbered in fear as he raised his hands to ward off another blow. "Don't…don't kill me!" he begged.

"Don't worry," she said in mock reassurance, "you're worth far more to me alive than dead."

"Whatever they're paying you, I'll double it," he said. "Just let me go, and I'll make it worth your while."

"You don't even know who's paying me, or why, or even how I found your little hideaway," she said to him. "And there is no amount of money in existence sufficient to 

persuade me to let you go." She drew the stun pistol again and blasted him with a full charge, before he could say anything more. "And your prattling is starting to make me ill."

He would be unconscious for quite some time. She made use of the time to put binders on his wrists and ankles, and made especially sure to tape his mouth shut, lest she become nauseous in mid-flight. Then she loaded him on the skimmer, reconnected the circuits she had disabled, and used it to bring the two of them out a tunnel and into the midnight air. A quick signal on her comlink activated the autopilot in the _Cloud Runner_ and sent a signal that it could use to home in on her location. It was one of the more expensive upgrades that she had installed, but it was worth every little credit.

As she waited for her fighter to arrive, she had a moment to reflect on the day's work. Truth be told, Shadow's information had proved invaluable, allowing her to gain an insurmountable advantage in surprise over her quarry. Leaving aside the whole issue of whether or not she'd have even found Fant on her own, without his information she would have been hard-pressed to make it past the security systems that kept watch over the ground-floor entrances, not to mention being able to scare Fant out of his hidey-hole and into her custody. The degree of his information was disturbing though; just how had he managed to amass so much about Fant? And if he knew so much, how come he hadn't gone after the man on his own? While he had given her a priceless tipoff, she couldn't help but wonder if the ebon-furred fox was setting her up for a fall later, his reassurances to the contrary notwithstanding. After she had turned Fant over to the authorities, she resolved to pay him another visit, to get some answers to these questions.

* * *

_Author's note: I actually had what would become chapter 3 almost finished before I even started this chapter. I was originally going to skip to Krystal's next meeting with Shadow, but some friends said they wanted to see her in action before she returned to the bar. I hope this is what they wanted! Next chapter will provide some background information on the situation. _

_Special thanks to str8shot for being the first to review this story. _


	4. History Lessons

**Chapter 3: History Lessons**

A week later, Kursed walked out of the bounty office again. Shadow's information had been precisely on target, right down to the details of the quarry's personality and probable actions. While this information had proven invaluable, allowing her to apprehend another, much more valuable bounty than any she'd gotten before in her time here, the question of _how_ he knew that much about someone, when only the vaguest records existed in the public archives, was a question that niggled like an itch in the back of her mind. She wondered if he would be willing to tell her: aside from the whole problem of _where_ his information came from was the question of _why_. It might very well involve personal experiences that he would be unwilling to share with someone who was still a relative stranger.

She decided to pay him another visit. It was still early afternoon, this time, although the sky was heavy with the imminent promise of rain. She wondered if he would even be there at this time of day, but there was no harm in checking, was there? Even if he was unwilling to part with any information at this time, that tea she'd had was pretty good, and all by itself would make the visit worthwhile.

She set off at a jog towards the restaurant/pub. It was a bit on the outskirts of the main city, but she had always possessed a good sense of direction, and was able to make her way there in only a fraction of the time she had taken before, when she had just been wandering the streets at random. She was just a block away from the building when she heard a loud peal of thunder behind her. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see a wall of rain advancing down the street along the path she had just travelled. She broke into a sprint to reach the door before the weather reached her, and was mostly successful; she reached the door before the rain did, but in the time it took her to open it, the rain had caught up with her. She jumped inside as quickly as she could, and shook water from her hair before she looked around to find the bar.

The place was practically empty at the moment. She saw one or two people eating in the dining area, and no one at the bar. Shadow himself was there, leaning against the counter, half turned away from the door, throwing darts at a board on the other side of the room. She scoffed at the notion that he could hit it from that far away until she took a closer look and noticed the grouping already on the board: five darts, all in the bull's-eye region. As she watched, he lifted another dart, took careful aim, and launched it across the room to embed itself next to its companions. Moderately impressed, she approached the bar after she made sure he didn't have any more sharp objects in his hands. "Is the bartender bored?" she asked in a slightly too-sweet manner.

"Just a little," he replied. "Business is always slow in foul weather." He cocked an ear, listening to the weather. "Looks like you didn't quite beat the rain." The patter of rain on the rooftop, was abruptly joined by a _plink-plink_ of something much harder. "But at least you made it in before the hail started falling. I hope you don't plan on being anywhere else for a while, because this storm is supposed to last all afternoon."

"Here is as good a place as any," she told him, "and probably better than most at this point."

"Ah, glad you can stay. Oh, I hear that congratulations are in order for a successful hunt?"

She was not particularly surprised that he knew about her capture of Fant; although she had only just turned him over to the authorities, Shadow seemed to be remarkably well informed about anything that related to the various members of the previous government, both those still at large and those who were already in custody. "Why thank you, it's very kind of you to say so."

He laced his fingers together and rested his elbows on the counter, with his chin on top of his hands. "So, what did you think of him?"

Kursed was a little taken aback by the tone in his voice. There was curiosity, to be certain, but there was also a hint of…_smugness_, like he was taking a personal satisfaction in Fant's downfall and capture. She let the contempt she felt for the human rise to the surface. "He was scum. The universe would be better off without him."

Shadow seemed to be expecting more, but the subject was closed as far as she was concerned. Eventually, he realized that she didn't want to talk any more about it, and moved on to other business. "So, what can I do for you today?"

"First I'd like a drink. Something hot, so I don't catch a chill; the stuff I had before was pretty nice"

He scribbled an entry on a notepad – she didn't notice that detail before – and tore the slip off the pad. "One hot green tea, coming right up," he announced.

While he busied himself preparing her drink, she took a quick look around the restaurant again. Of the two patrons who had been seated before, one had gotten up and left for somewhere in the time she'd taken coming to the bar. The other was still occupied with whatever he was doing, and did not appear to be interested in anything else.

"All ready," Shadow announced from behind her. He placed a still-steaming mug full of tea near her place at the bar. "And there's refills ready, in case you want more later."

"Why, thank you." She took an experimental sip, and made a silent note to herself to remember this place for the future; even if she got no more hints from Shadow, the food - and the drink, for that matter – was some of the best she'd tasted in a long time.

"So," Shadow asked, "since you're stuck here for a while, is there anything else you might need?"

She gave his question some thought, and decided that some background information on the planet and its recent history was necessary. She also had a couple of questions regarding events that had taken place the last time she was in the pub. "What can you tell me about this 

place? I mean, it seems the planet has gone through a civil war of some sort very recently, and most of the bounties on the lists are for members of the previous government. Normally I don't care what the circumstances are behind the bounty, but this seems to be a most unusual way to apprehend war criminals. Bottom line, I want to know if I'm being used to do the dirty work for this government while they present clean hands to the general public, or if I'm being set up."

He pulled a small stool up behind the counter and sat down. "Well, I can't attest to the moral virtue of _every _member of the Provisional Senate, but by and large, they are a fair and honest group of people – of all races. They wouldn't set someone up for a fall, and the common citizens already know about most of the bounties out there. The regular military is tied up with keeping the various groups of raiders, pirates, and such at bay, so they are posting all these bounties so that other people, who may or may not be the "joining" types, have an incentive to bring in those individuals who deserve justice but have so far escaped it."

That statement helped allay some of her anxieties, but it left more questions in her mind. She decided to start with one regarding her previous visit. "When you were telling me about that guy you gave me the leads for, you said he was part of a group you called the 'Purists'. What exactly were you referring to by that term?"

A look of what might have been distaste crossed Shadow's face. "The Purists were a group of humans who believed that their race was superior to every other race that lived here. As a result, they proclaimed that every race other than them was subservient to theirs, and that we were not entitled to the same rights and privileges that citizens of this world were granted. When they had achieved a significant power base, they began doing things like kidnapping people from their homes, subjugating them to slavery under atrocious conditions, and even mass slaughter that bordered on genocide."

"How'd a group like that ever come to power?" She was completely mystified. "If it was so virulently hateful, how did its members assume positions of authority?"

He sighed and sat up again. "I suppose some background is in order, about how humans came to this world."

"Came here? You mean they're not native to this planet?"

"No, their homeworld was a place called Earth, or Terra; I've heard it refer to by both terms. Apparently it's no longer inhabitable. The humans' first contact with other sentient species took the form of a massive alien invasion, by an arthropod race known as the Vorhess. Not only did they attack without provocation, but apparently they used humans as incubators for their young. The larval Vorhess ate their host from the inside out." She grimaced in disgust at the thought of being eaten alive, and he concluded, "Eventually, to escape this threat, the humans set fire to their own homeworld and abandoned it, scattering across the galaxy. Because of the nature of their first contact, some humans have a deep-seated fear and loathing of other races. Most of them are decent individuals; it's just the few rotten ones that ruin it for everyone else."

"So that explains how they got here in the first place," she said, somewhat testily, "but you didn't answer my question: _how _did they come to power?"

"Through overtly legitimate means at first; by acquiring seats in the Senate. What most people didn't notice, however, was that they used bribery and extortion to wrangle positions onto many of the ballots, and to persuade otherwise upright individuals not to run. They were aided in this endeavor by those humans who shared their views, and by those they were able to intimidate into keeping silent or assisting them. When they had enough of a presence that they could control how votes went, they began enacting their agenda."

Kursed was at once amazed at the lengths the Purists went to for the advancement of their agenda, and appalled at what that agenda entailed. "To do all those things…how could people just stand by and let it happen?"

"People didn't just "let it happen." From the first rumors that atrocities were being instituted by the authority of the government, there were groups who strove to uncover the truth, and who later and who later instigated armed resistance once it became clear that the Purists were going to pursue their agenda regardless of what people said. Practically every non-human had a vested interest in seeing the Purists removed from power, but there were also many humans who protested the way their friends were being treated. This led to a grave mistake on the part of the Purists; they tried to silence those of their own race who didn't agree with their point of view. When it became clear that the Purists' main goal was a totalitarian regime, and that they would silence anyone who tried to object, the vast majority of the planet's population began to support the rebels, whether in an active or a passive manner. Those in power cannot maintain their positions without support, or at least apathy, from those that they govern. Once the entire planet began to rebel, they eventually had no choice but to go into hiding. However, they are still a threat, and they could still make things miserable for everyone else, hence all the bounties out there for the core members of that group."

It sounded to Kursed as though the Purists had attempted a complete takeover of the planet, but that they had failed due to their xenophobic campaign and by making enemies of practically everyone in the system. But some of the story still didn't make clear sense to her. "Just like that? These people, these…Purists...make a couple of mistakes and suddenly the whole planet is up in arms against them? I think there's more to this than you're telling me."

"They made more than just a couple of mistakes, they made many. All of these things combined to tip the sympathies of those who were uncertain towards the various groups of freedom fighters who were struggling to overthrow a pathologically violent regime. Even with all of these things in our favor, the struggle to overthrow them was still a long and bloody war." Shadow paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, but she caught a glimpse of sorrow in his eyes. That, plus a strong emotional impression that she read from him, despite his efforts to control it, told her something unexpected: he had been deeply involved in the struggle to overthrow the despotic regime that the Purists had set up, and the price to him had been enormous. Probably the reason he had glossed over certain aspects of the history of Kew's most recent change in government was because they touched on memories that were too painful for him to share.

He had fallen silent, and didn't seem inclined to elaborate any further, so she decided to change the subject. "You said that these people have gone into hiding. Do you have any ideas where they might be hiding, in general?"

He considered her new line of inquiry for a moment before he gave an answer. "Although Kew is the most populated planet in this sector of space, there are also numerous asteroid habitats in the system, plus a few outlying colony systems that have one or two settlements apiece on them. Some of the Purists have probably fled to these outlying areas, or they may have joined up with one of the various pirate gangs that sometimes plague this area. The majority of them should still be on this planet however."

"That should make finding them a bit easier…"

"A planet is an awfully big place and one that has as much infrastructure as Kew has literally millions of places for people who do not wish to be found to hide." Shadow smiled dryly. "Your track record, however, is quite impressive. I'm more than a little curious, though, as to why you've chosen this particular line of work. I'll grant that it's a pretty lucrative career, but it must be rather lonely, not to mention incredibly risky."

She did not quite know how to answer that question, since he had caught her off balance with it. "It keeps me occupied." She added, more quietly, "It keeps me focused on the present instead of in the past."

"And just what's in the past that you're trying so hard not to think about?"

She took a deep breath, and let it out, as though she were preparing for a difficult task. Perhaps she was. "Tell me … have you ever been in love?"

"I've been married," he replied evenly. "Does that count? Is that what this is about, a bad relationship?"

"That is none of your business," she snapped.

"My apologies then," he said, and it seemed sincere.

She looked away for a moment, chagrined by her reaction. Then another question came to mind, and she turned back to face him. "Your wife … what happened?"

He didn't reply for a long moment, and she sensed some of the same grief that she had felt from him earlier. "She … died … during the war."

She knew there was more to that than he was telling, but decided she had pressed a sore topic far enough for the time being.

She recalled another question she'd had in mind that had been sidelined by the conversation until now. "When you were telling me about Colonel Fant, you knew details about him that included personal information, things about personality and behavior and such, and it was all incredibly accurate. How did you know all this?"

His expression was suddenly much more guarded. "I've met him, somewhat." He changed the subject as his gaze shifted focus and his attention wandered to the outdoors. "Things seem to be clearing up outside. You could probably go outside without getting soaked and pummeled now."

She looked out in surprise; over the course of their conversation, several hours had gone by, and she had drunk at least four glasses of tea. In addition, the rain and hail had ceased, and the sun was emerging from behind the clouds for the remainder of the day. "Huh, how time flies," she remarked.

She paid her tab and got up to leave. As she was headed to the door Shadow called out, "Hey, you know, I never got your name."

She turned back towards him. "You mean with all you know about me you haven't heard it yet? It's Kursed."

"That isn't your name, that's an alias. I doubt any parent would be so cruel as to name their child that, and why would choose to claim something like that, anyway?"

"What's it matter to you? And don't tell me that 'Shadow' is _your_ legal name."

"It's not," he replied evenly. "It's a nickname I've had since I was a kit, for my coloration and my quiet nature. And my question still stands; why did you choose to call yourself 'Kursed'?"

She thought for a little bit, trying to put into words a feeling that had lurked in the back of her mind for four long years now. "Because of some… events in my life, I feel as though I've been condemned to a life of loneliness. No matter how hard I try, I find it impossible to trust anyone again; people seem to just want to use me for some reason or another."

"That, unfortunately, is a fact of life in this region of space. But, if you never take a chance, you'll never find those whom you _can_ put faith in." He looked down at the bar for a moment, and then looked back up at her again. "Is there something I could call you by that doesn't sound so… harsh?"

She didn't know whether to be irritated that he would pry, or touched that he would care. It was the first time in a long time that anyone had shown concern about her well-being that extended beyond just what she could do for them. She thought about what he said for a long time, and finally replied, "Call me Krys, then, if that's how you feel about it."

"Krys it is, then," he said, and he looked relieved at her decision. "May I give you a word of warning, before you go? Colonel Fant may have been a coward in the end, but he was one of 

the most highly placed leaders within the Purists' regime. With his capture, you may have made yourself some bitter enemies, people who will try to make sure that you don't bring any more bounties in… ever. Be sure to watch your back."

"I'll remember that," she said, "and thank you."

"Stay safe, until we meet again," he called as she walked out the door. She gave an off-handed wave as she stepped out onto the street, and headed back to the small apartment that was as close to a home as she had right now. As she walked, she reviewed the conversation in her mind again. She believed he was on the level, as far as her safety was concerned, although she was still unsure as to why, if he hated the Purists as much as he seemed to, and knew so much about them, he wasn't out there himself trying to hunt them down. She shrugged to herself; the fact that he worked as an information broker of sorts, instead of a rival hunter, was to her benefit. Perhaps there was some as-yet-unexplained reason for his decision. At the moment, her immediate concern was getting back to her apartment so she could get a good night's sleep. Her questions could keep for later.

* * *

_Author's Notes: This chapter was actually almost finished before I even started working on the previous chapter. I apologize in advance if it seems a little choppy in places.  
_


	5. Unforseen Allies

**Chapter 4: Unforeseen Allies**

Kursed half-crouched on a tree limb on the largely forested world of Verdas, and surveyed a fortress. It seemed to be heavily guarded, with tight surveillance making intrusion nearly impossible, and fortifications that made direct combat virtual suicide. She didn't let the lack of an immediate solution discourage her, although she really saw no feasible way to enter. It didn't really matter. She'd acquired information that indicated that Doctor Simeon Bertrand, a highly valued member of the Purists' inner circle, had taken refuge inside, and the list of crimes under his name made his capture her immediate priority.

This fortress wasn't like Fant's estate, relying on secrecy and surveillance to counter enemy threats. This place was a hardened stronghold, built to repel any large assault, and catch anyone foolish enough to try a solitary infiltration. She could strafe the area with the _Cloudrunner's_ guns to disable the perimeter defenses, but any attack would send the base to high alert, and those systems were only the first in probably an extensive series of defenses. In short, her job was well-nigh impossible, as she saw it now.

She shifted the focus of her surveillance closer to the base of the tree she had climbed, looking for inspiration. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of black that was out of place in the verdant hues of the forest. She lowered the binoculars for a second, and then brought them back up to see if what she'd seen had been an illusion. The black that she saw remained, and she was able to identify the individual standing on the ground nearby. He didn't seem to have noticed her presence yet, but that little fact was overtaken by the question of what _he _was doing _here_.

She descended the tree as quickly as she dared, jumping from branch to branch towards the ground. As her feet hit the forest floor, she sprinted towards the other person she had seen. He must have heard her approach, because he whirled around to face her and drew an oversized pistol. She heard the weapon whine as its capacitors charged, but he checked the motion once he saw who it was.

"What the heck are _you_ doing here?" she blurted out.

"Good, afternoon to you too, Krys," Shadow replied. "Is that any way to greet a friend?"

"That hasn't been established, yet," she replied, "and you didn't answer my question. What are you _doing _here?"

"The same thing I imagine you were doing," he replied evenly, "surveying that base there in preparation for infiltrating it."

"Why," she asked, "not to mention how?"

"Doctor Bertrand is being held in there. I intend to break him out. There are a couple of things I need him to do for me."

"And just why would you need him for anything?" She was completely mystified, as Shadow had always expressed vehement opposition to the Purists and their cronies. Now he was talking about aiding one of the most highly sought-after members of their organization, and talking as though the man was being held prisoner. "Have you any idea what he's done? Botched medical procedures and experiments that left people crippled and dying? Why ever would you want to help someone like him and what could you possibly hope to gain from it?"

"Because I know him," Shadow replied. His bearing seemed tense and yet weary, all of a sudden. "I was one of his patients, for a while, and I can tell you that he was coerced against his will into aiding the Purists. As for what I need him to do… that's a rather long story, and not one I'm inclined to share right now."

Kursed looked back towards the fortress for a moment, and then turned to look Shadow squarely in the eye. "It doesn't really matter what you want. There's a high bounty offered for his capture and I intend to collect it."

"Oh? You'd condemn an innocent man for the sake of money? I thought you had more honor than that."

"Regardless of whether he was threatened or not, he was complicit in the deaths of who knows how many people," she retorted hotly. "He made his choice, and he chose to harm others." She hadn't meant to be so harsh in her judgment, but his jibe about her honor rankled, and touched perilously close to old wounds, as well.

Shadow remained silent for a moment, but his eyes blazed. Kursed met his stare without flinching. After a while, he began to speak, in a carefully controlled voice that was somehow more menacing than any amount of shouting. "I'm going to excuse that remark, because I assume you are speaking out of ignorance. Sometimes there is _no_ right answer. Your determination is moot, anyway, unless you've figured out a way to get in there without attracting attention."

She didn't want to concede that point, but he was right. "No, I haven't yet. But I don't think you have a way in, either."

"Actually, I do. It's just not quite ready yet." Some people might have sounded smug at that pronouncement, but the sense coming from him was more like the satisfaction of surmounting a difficult obstacle. He looked down at the forest floor for a moment, then looked back up at her. "Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier, but this is potentially a matter of life or death for me."

"Oh, really?" she asked.

"Indeed," he replied. "Listen, you're dead set on getting in, right? Why don't we work together? If we try to go each on our own, we're likely to get in each others' way, and that could be lethal."

"I work _alone_," she said.

"And are left with only your own resources to call upon. Unless you are an expert on _everything_, you can't cover every task you might possibly need to handle. Fortunately for me, I _don't_ work alone. As things stand right now, we have a fair chance of success in pulling this off; but someone of your… talents, and track record, would make things that much more likely to succeed. But, even for someone of your caliber, trying to get Bertrand out alive on your own without alerting the entire base to your presence is essentially an impossible task."

Although she hated to admit it, he was right. Even with the resources she had, there was, quite plainly, no way to even ensure a reasonable chance of success. But on the other hand, she hated the thought of working with other people. Others had offered to help her, just in the time since she had become a bounty hunter, and most of them had double-crossed her at one point or another. Although he had helped her with information in the past, she had no idea how he would act in the field, when there was something he wanted badly enough to come and get it himself, something he apparently didn't trust her to handle. There was the option of probing his mind, but it seemed that unless he let her, she would be blocked out; his thoughts remained closed off to her. She toyed with the idea of _asking_ him to let her probe his mind directly, but _that_ would entail letting him know she was a telepath, and she had no idea how he would react to that news. After a few moments, however, she decided the gain was worth the potential risk.

"I'll go along with you on one condition; let me scan your thoughts to make sure that you don't intend to betray me." She waited to see his reaction, but it wasn't what quite she expected.

"So you _are_ a mind reader," he mused. "I had heard rumors, but didn't know how credible they were. Interesting… But, what guarantee do _I_ have that you won't go poking around where you aren't invited?"

"You'll just have to trust me," she said to him. "Like I'll have to trust you."

There was silence for a few moments, but then he said, "Go ahead."

His quick acceptance surprised her, but she stepped forward and placed her fingertips on his temples. For a brief moment she toyed with the idea of probing his whole consciousness, but a cursory check nixed that plan. Except for the parts that she had specifically asked to see, his mind was tightly locked down, in a manner consistent with either experience at resisting telepathic probes, or psychological trauma. She didn't know which the case was, but the subject was an academic curiosity at this point. She focused on his integrity, seeking to confirm whether or not he was lying to her or had in mind to betray her at any point. A hundred anecdotes of his past flashed through her mind in a heartbeat, too fast for her to make coherent sense of every aspect, but they all pointed towards one thing: he didn't give loyalty or promises easily, but when he did, he would stand by them to the end. Such was the case here.

"Are you satisfied?"

"Yes," she said. "I've decided; I'll work with you on this mission."

"All right, then. Our… mode of entry… won't be ready for at least a few more hours, and we were planning to use the cover of nightfall to infiltrate the base. Why don't you come back with me, meet a few friends of mine in the meantime. We might be of more help to you than you think, even after this is over. I also think you might want to listen to why I think Bertrand is innocent of major wrongdoing."

Her first impulse was to decline, but his offer intrigued her. In the time since she had first met him, she had tried to acquire more information about this mysterious fox that seemed to know everything about what was going on in this region of space, to no avail. She wanted to know more about him, particularly since he seemed to earnestly want to do the right thing, personal desires to the contrary. In addition, she was interested in meeting the people that seemed to have earned his trust, when he so very clearly was not the open and trusting sort. "Very well," she said, "I accept your offer."

"All right, then," he said, "let's start back towards the camp. I'll see if I can explain the situation along the way."

They started walking back through the forest, with him leading the way and she following slightly behind. Suddenly, he turned back around and asked, "What happened to your jacket?"

"I left it on my fighter," she replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just curious. I think I like this look on you better", he said, with a slightly mischievous grin.

She felt her face grow hot as she realized he'd been checking her out. ""Remember what happened to the last person who tried to hit on me," she said.

"If I remember correctly, you hit him back", he said glibly. "But there's no harm in just looking, is there?"

She was growing uncomfortable with the course the conversation was taking, so she decided to change the subject. "You were going to tell me about your plan, and why I should go along with it? Specifically, why you assert that he is innocent, despite the list of crimes he is accused of."

"Well, as I said before, he was threatened into doing these things, by Dackar Maltare."

"Him, again?" she asked.

"Yes, him again. His official title was Director of Internal Security, but he wielded far more influence and power than one might at first think would go with that position. His job was to crush any and all dissident groups, and he was given broad authority and extensive resources to accomplish that task. While he was in that position, he presided over a number of black projects, among them the one in which Bertrand was involved. That particular project 

was intended to create a cadre of elite 'super soldiers,' with enhanced sensory and physical abilities, and special training that would make them into near-perfect commandos. Bertrand initially refused to allow his talents and research to be put to such a twisted use, but he eventually gave in when Dackar threatened to kill his son by gradual vivisection."

Kursed was actually appalled by the nature of the blackmail. "That man has a lot to answer for," she said, although that seemed to be a paltry answer to the magnitude of the evil Shadow had just described. "You said that Bertrand's research was 'twisted' to make this program work. What research was that?"

"He pioneered methods of cell regeneration that could restore damaged or atrophied tissues. Nerve cells, muscle tissues, the delicate receptors in the eyes and ears, and even certain brain cells, could be stimulated and induced to grow and repair themselves. That's a crude description of a very complicated process, but it meant that people who had previously been unable to lead normal, full lives could have their freedom and dignity restored to them. It was discovered a while after this that, with a few tweaks, these same techniques could be used to make already-healthy cells and tissues even better at what they did. However, there were certain limits to how far these boundaries could be stretched. If taken too far, enhanced muscles would tear tendons off the bones, enhanced nerves could become hypersensitive and overload, and even enhanced brain cells could start misfiring and cause seizures. However, _that_ particular bit of information was only obtained_ after _Maltare demanded unreasonable results from Bertrand and things went wrong, which probably accounts for most of the malpractices in that file."

In the light of this new information, Shadow's assertions regarding Dr. Bertrand's disposition was a bit easier to believe. While he certainly harbored no goodwill towards those who had aided the Purists willingly, whether out of shared ideology or because it furthered their own personal ambitions, he seemed more willing to forgive those who had made honest mistakes or who had been faced with impossible choices. She could also see where this was leading. "Where did you fall into all of this?" she asked. "You said that you had been a patient of his, and I can assume that it wasn't for a preexisting medical condition."

He was silent for a moment, and she began to wonder if he intended to answer. Just when she thought he had clammed up completely, however, he began to speak, slowly and softly, as if his words pained him.

"I was … the final test case, if you will. Maltare wanted to test the finalized regimen to its maximum safe limits, to make sure everything worked as it was supposed to, before he started applying it to 'valuable' human soldiers. I was deemed an expendable test subject." He stopped walking and turned around to face her. "You remember, at Tony's that time, when I was throwing darts at the dart board? I was scoring bull's eyes because of that. My eye-hand coordination is perfect; my reaction time is almost instantaneous, my strength is nearly double what it would be normally, and my visual and auditory acuity are beyond belief. "

That information gave her pause. He had never exhibited any of these abilities to her knowledge; the darts were the only indication of anything out of the ordinary that she had 

seen, and that could have been attributed to great skill and practice. Given all that she learned however, it raised a new question in her mind. "I f the experiment was so successful, then how come there aren't hundreds more people like you running around? And why would someone like Maltare leave you alive when you so clearly hated him?"

"Oh look, we're almost there," he said.

She looked annoyed. "You didn't answer my question."

"Maybe later," he replied. He lifted his hand and made an intricate-looking three-part signal with his fingers. "For now, let me show you our plan for getting in, and introduce you to my friends?"

It seemed evident that he wasn't willing to talk about it just yet. She could have probed his mind if she wanted to, but, depending on how tightly his mind had closed down around the subject, he might sense what she was trying to do, and would probably not respond favorably to such an intrusion. Provoking someone like him to violence was not a good idea, especially when he would probably tell her anyways later. She decided to leave it alone for the time being. "I'll respect your privacy," she said, "but I do want an answer to my question."

"You'll get it," he said, "in time." At that point, the two of them stepped into a small clearing, where a campsite had been set up next to what looked like a modified troop transport shuttle. Kursed immediately identified five other individuals in the immediate area; two of them were in plain sight, one was onboard the shuttle, one was positioned up in a tree nearby, and the last was sort of behind the ship and seemed to be preoccupied with some other task. The two in sight were a female ocelot and a male wolf. Both of them looked up from whatever they were doing to examine the new arrivals.

"Hi, guys." Shadow said to them. "Sorry I'm late, I ran into a friend and we sort of got to talking."

"You presume too much." Kursed folded her arms across her chest, irritated with the way he referred to her as a 'friend'. True, she had agreed to work with him and his group, but that was far from the level of trust and intimacy that being a 'friend' implied.

"All right; a valued customer, then?"

"Just get on with the introductions. I said I'd work with you, not that I'd join your little band."

The brief argument had attracted the attention of the other members of the group. The person on the ship was a male human, with very pale skin and unruly medium-blond hair. The one who had until now been otherwise occupied was a female raccoon who had dyed her short, spiky hair an obnoxious neon green color. The one in the tree was a male raven, who had the bearing of a sniper, and a long-barreled rifle of a type she hadn't seen before slung over his shoulder.

"Officially, we have no name, nor do we exist as a coherent group," Shadow said to her. "Unofficially, we call ourselves Omega Squad, and without us, the Purists would still be in power and things would be much harsher than they are now." At her disbelieving look, he shrugged and said, "I know that sounds conceited, but it is true."

The combined stares of the group left her feeling more than a little uncomfortable. She turned to Shadow and said, "So, are you going to introduce me to your little group of unsung heroes or am I going to have to guess names?"

He turned to the rest of the group and indicated her with a gesture. "First off everyone, this is…"

"You can just call me Kursed." She was beginning to have second thoughts about the nickname she had allowed Shadow to call her by; it seemed to imply a degree of familiarity she wasn't comfortable with. Maybe it was just because she hadn't worked in any sort of group dynamic since she'd left Lylat, but she was distinctly uneasy with trusting her safety, and the success of her mission, to other people.

"She has a certain reputation…" the wolf said. "Are you sure we can trust her?"

"We share a common mission," Shadow said to him "and our objectives do not seriously conflict. I think, in this endeavor, at least, we can be sure of her." He turned to her and indicated the wolf who had just spoken. "This is Zeke; he's our heavy weapons and demolitions expert. Incidentally, Zeke, keep your normal routine to yourself this time; I don't want you getting hurt."

The wolf sketched a sloppy salute and drawled, "Aye aye Cap'n, will ignore the gorgeous young vixen standing right in front of me on your order." Kursed glared at him for that, but he just shrugged and grinned back at her.

Shadow indicated the ocelot next; "This is Eilarra, she's our medic. She takes care of us all when we get banged up, and we don't think that the guards have been particularly kind to Bertrand. We might need to patch him up a bit before he's fit to travel." Eilarra gave Kursed a polite bow, but didn't say anything. She seemed quite and calm, and despite her antisocial front, Kursed found herself curious about why so serene an individual was involved with such a militant group.

The next person was the raven. "Edgar here is our sniper. He's a bit of a braggart, but he's the best shot on the team; he's gotten us out of more than one tight spot with his marksmanship." Edgar smiled, as much as it was possible for a bird to smile, at the appraisal, but also didn't say anything in response.

Shadow pointed to the raccoon, which was leaning against the side of the transport with an insolent smirk on her face. "That bundle of attitude there is our computer expert, Sondra. Her social skills are on the light side of average, but she's one of the best hackers in existence. Hanging with us keeps her productive and out of trouble; she has no regard for such things as 

privacy or security concerns, and no respect for authority. You can guess how government types view those sorts of personalities."

"What's the point of being able to get past security firewalls if I never take the opportunity?" the raccoon said. Her tone implied that she truly didn't understand why those in charge would get so upset about her intrusions.

The last person in the lineup was the human. "Michael here is our mechanical expert. He keeps the _Infiltrator_ running smoothly, and comes up with all sorts of oddball gadgets in the meantime." As the human lifted one hand to acknowledge the introduction, she noticed he was missing the last finger on his right hand.

Presumably, "_Infiltrator"_ was the designation given to their shuttle. She took a quick moment to get a closer look at it. It had stubby wings placed low on the rear third of the craft, with thruster pods at the base of each wing, and a septet of thruster nozzles in the aft section. There was a small anti-personnel gun in a ball turret under the cockpit, a quad-barreled turret on top of the ship that seemed to be an aftermarket add-on, and a pair of missile pods, one on each side of the craft. It probably wasn't the most nimble of vehicles, but was well-armed enough that lone fighters would probably think twice about attacking it.

Michael and Sondra moved off behind the shuttle, to continue working on whatever it was that Shadow had planned to use to get inside the fortress. He still hadn't elaborated on that, so she decided to ask. "How exactly did you plan on getting in there? Without bringing the whole garrison down on our collective heads, of course."

"As you probably noticed during your surveillance, the place is too well-defended for a frontal attack, and security and surveillance are too tight for infiltration to have a reasonable chance of success. So we're going to try both at once." At her incredulous stare, he smiled and beckoned her around to the other side of the _Infiltrator_. Lined up next to each other were six missiles, each with access panels open and components strewn around them. The raccoon and the human were busy putting some specialized equipment inside each. Michael looked up as Shadow asked, "How's it coming, you two?"

"It'd come faster if you didn't keep jiggling my elbow every five minutes," Sondra said smarmily.

"We're almost done," Michael said more diplomatically. "We just need to settle the concussive warheads in place, and make sure we don't set them off by accident in the process"

"Because it might alert the base?" Kursed asked.

"Well yeah, but if they all went off, they'd turn this whole camp into a smoking crater," Michael replied. "Giving away our presence would be the least of our worries in that case."

"And we don't want that," Kursed said. After a moment, she asked, "Was that how you lost your finger, in an accident like that?"

"No." Michael rubbed his maimed hand absently then said, "Doctor Bertrand is my father. When dad tried to refuse Maltare's demands for the super-soldier program, Maltare began cutting on my hand. Dad caved in when he drew blood, but Maltare went ahead and cut all the joints of my finger off, one at a time, just to emphasize his point. Dad was afraid to defy him after that, at least until I was safely out of harm's way. Please don't judge him too harshly; there really was no way he could win in that situation."

Kursed looked at him appraisingly. This information was enough to almost make her feel sympathetic to Bertrand's situation - _almost_. She moved off to another part of the camp, the one furthest away from everyone else. The prospect of working with a group of people, especially people she didn't know, went strongly against her loner nature. She sat down on a log and rested her head on her hands, thinking about the situation. To tell the truth she was starting to have second thoughts about this bounty; since this group seemed so intent on getting Bertrand out on their terms, she didn't really see much purpose in her presence here. She was considering whether or not she could leave; if Shadow was anxious about operational security, he might not let her leave on her own terms.

"Um…excuse me?" a quiet voice said.

Kursed turned to see who the speaker was. It was a female voice, and soft, which probably meant the ocelot medic, Eilarra, but she hadn't gotten to know any of the other members of Omega Squad yet, so she had no reference for identifying people by their thought patterns yet. Her suspicion was correct, however; Eilarra stood a few feet away, holding what looked like MRE packages, one in each hand.

"What do you want?"

"I was…I was just wondering if you were hungry." The feline female seemed a little nervous, but Kursed suspected that was more due to an innately shy nature than fear. She looked at the ration packs Eilarra held, and a twist in her stomach reminded her that it had been a while since she had eaten; the necessity of traveling light, and having to park the _Cloud Runner_ so far away, meant she couldn't carry much in the way of food supplies.

"I'll take one of those, if you don't mind," she said to the other female. Eilarra held out both self-heating ration packs, and let her choose one, then opened the other to let the chemical reaction that warmed the meal inside begin. Kursed opened up her own pack and waited for it to cook. While she waited, she asked, "If you don't mind the question; your group - are you mercenaries or something?"

Eilarra smiled slightly, and brushed a lock of gold-streaked brown hair out of her eyes. "No, to be mercenaries we'd have to be paid for what we do. Understand, in official government archives, Omega Squad does not exist as a coherent group. It is only a convenient designation, a quick reference for the six of us that are a part of our little community. We are simply a group of people who knew each other by various channels, and who pooled our resources and talents towards topping the Purist regime almost a year ago. We do what we do for the hope of a better future."

"So you're not after any sort of bounty at all?" Kursed wanted to know.

"Concerned about turf violation?" The ocelot leaned back slightly and thought for a moment. "Actually, we're barred from accepting bounty payments, so any money earned from that would all go to you if you participate in this endeavor."

"Why? Not that I'm complaining, but why can't you accept bounties?

"Politics." Eilarra's tone made the single word sound like a profanity. Kursed wanted to question her a little more on the subject, but by then their meals had finished heating. Kursed didn't examine the contents or package too closely, having enough experience with MREs to know that it was better to go ahead and eat it without asking questions. They ate their food in relative silence, and Kursed actually found herself feeling a little more confident about the situation. After the two of them were done eating, Eilarra collected the packages and took them into the _Infiltrator_ for disposal. Kursed got up and walked around to the occupied side of the camp, where she saw Shadow leaning against the side of the shuttle.

He turned as she approached, and asked, "Having second thoughts?"

"Maybe," she replied.

He turned to look her squarely in the eye. "I know I made light of the difficulty involved with entering the fortress, but the truth is, we're in no position to turn down help, wherever it comes from. If it's any consolation, the bounty on Bertrand is only for retrieval, so you'd get paid regardless of what ultimately happens to him."

"I've already decided to see this through," she told him. "Although, you could answer one question for me."

"Really? What is it?"

"How did _you_ know Bertrand was here?"

Shadow thought for a second, then said, "I received an anonymous message saying that Bertrand was being held here, against his will. Interestingly, I also received a _second_ message that said that 'someone important to me' was here. It was unclear as to whether this other message also referred to Bertrand, or to somebody else, but either way, it was something I could not afford to pass up."

"Has it ever occurred to you that this could be a trap?" Kursed didn't think someone so knowledgeable could be so naive, but the setup seemed very suspicious to her.

"Yes, it has," he replied, "which is another reason we're using such a … unconventional distraction. Hopefully, the guards on the base will be too busy doing damage control to mount an effective ambush."

"I hope you're right," she said.

"So do I," he replied. He started to turn, then said, "This is just a suggestion, but if I were you, I'd take a nap before we move out. We have space on the _Infiltrator_, but it looks like it'll be a nice night for sleeping outdoors, also. Whichever you prefer is fine."

"I think I'll sleep outside," she said. He shrugged and moved off, and she found a spot near the edge of the clearing to bed down for the night. She wasn't too keen on sleeping actually, since her dreams had been troubling recently, but from a tactical view I made sense to rest before going into battle. She found a soft spot on the ground, stretched out, and surprised herself by falling asleep almost immediately.

* * *

_Author's note: Wow, I think this is the longest chapter I've submitted to date. I originally had Shadow as a lone super commando, but decided that routine was a little cheesy, so over time I came up with the idea for Omega Squad. There's a fair amount of backstory behind the characters and events that happened before this story takes place, which I'll go into in the form of flashbacks, to cover some of the more pivotal moments of their pasts. The next couple of chapters should have plenty of action, so sit tight everyone; this party's just getting started.  
_


	6. Battle Preparations

**Chapter 5: Battle Preparations**

_Krystal sat alone at a table in a smoky dive on the outskirts of Corneria City. This place had a certain reputation for trouble, and she was almost hoping someone would make a pass at her, so she could punch him out and relieve some of the frustration she felt inside. Thus far, however, no one had come close enough to hassle her; maybe her brooding posture warned any would be suitors away from her position. A cup of liquor sat in front of her – her first still, even after almost two hours of being here. She hadn't come here to get drunk, that would be begging for trouble, but she wasn't really sure why she _was _here, either. Since leaving Star Fox, she had taken a job as a pilot for the regular Cornerian military, but had largely kept to herself and didn't socialize with her fellow pilots beyond the necessities of work. She felt alone and isolate, even when in the middle of a crowd of people; not a pleasant feeling to anyone, but particularly unnerving to a telepath. _

_Her thought were interrupted by a purring, insinuating voice; "My dear Krystal, why is a lovely young lady like you sitting all alone in a place like this for?" Even without using telepathy, she could have identified the speaker by his voice and the overly familiar way he addressed her. She looked up to see a chocolate-furred feline standing across the table from her, giving her his most flattering smile. _

"_Panther!" she exclaimed. It wasn't that she was happy to see him; more like surprised, since there was a warrant and a twenty-thousand credit bounty out for his capture and arrest. It took a lot of nerve for him to show his face here on Corneria at all, let alone in the capital. On the other hand, while he was a rampant ladies' man and a bigger ego case than even Falco Lombardi, he wasn't that foolish; likely he either knew the owner or knew that the owner would look the other way. "What are you doing here? If you just came over to hit on me again, I'll punch you in the nose." _

"_No need to get violent, my dear," he told her. "I merely am wondering if what I heard was actually true; that Fox McCloud has forced you off his team." _

_She balled one hand into a fist and struggled not to cry again at the memory. "Yes, it's true." _

"_I'm sorry to hear that," the feline pilot said. He indicated the chair across from her at the table, and asked, "May I sit down?" _

"_I guess so," she replied. Truthfully, she didn't care either way, but if he made one wrong move, she would make good on her threat. Once he was seated, she asked the question that had been on her mind since she saw him. "Panther, why are you even here?" _

_He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially; "As you are probably already aware, Corneria is having troubles with Venom…again. This time, though, the adversary is a new race; the Anglars, from Venom's oceans. Venom's oceans are very acidic; no one can investigate them without their craft or probe dissolving in the water. This means that the Anglars have been able to build up a large army without being detected, and now they are set on conquering all of Lylat. It's only a matter of time before the system is completely under their control."_

"_This is hardly news, Panther, and you still haven't answered my question. Not to mention, how you plan on circumventing the little issue of preventing your fighter from melting out from underneath you." _

"_I'm getting there," he replied with a charming smile. "During the Lylat Wars eleven years ago, Star Wolf flew for Andross Oikonny, thought that was before I joined the group. Leon only wanted to get out and fight and kill, but Wolf kept an ear out for any useful bits of information. Wolf never really trusted Andross; he knew that to a mad scientist with a god-complex, all underlings were ultimately expendable, and he had no intention of being expended. _

"_During that time, Wolf heard mention of a device that Andross had been working on that was supposed to, among other things, neutralize the extreme acidity of the Venom Sea. This device is hidden away in one of his storehouses that he had built during his mobilization of Venom's armies. If someone found it, they would be able to confront the Anglar Emperor and kill him, thus bringing the invasion to an end. Anyone who could do this would obviously have the goodwill of the Cornerian government; if Star Wolf were to save the day this time around, Corneria would even be grateful enough to remove the bounties on our heads." He leaned in a little further and whispered into her ear, "We would stand a better chance of finding the device – specifically, of finding it before Star Fox does - if we had more skilled pilots on our roster." _

"_I see," Krystal said noncommittally. It was an audacious plan to be sure, although given what she had hears recently, the only active member of Star Fox right now was Fox McCloud; everyone else had left to pursue other paths. Still, if push came to shove and it fell it Star Fox to save Lylat again, she had no doubt most of her former teammates would answer the call to arms. She however, would not be one of them, this time. _

_She felt a smile slowly begin to creep across her muzzle. It wasn't her usual playful grin, or the joyous expression that she'd had little reason to use in recent months. It was a predatory expression, the kind her distant, four-legged ancestors might have used when they had run a prey item to ground. Panther's proposal offered her the opportunity to both do some good for Lylat, and to pay Fox back, in the most appropriate way possible, for dumping her. He would swiftly learn what he had lost. A part of her whispered that taking revenge, particularly in this manner, was fraught with peril, but most of her simply wanted the pain and loneliness to end, and she was willing to go to extreme lengths to make that happen. _

_She looked up to Panther again, who had drawn back at the expression on her face. She gave him a more reassuring smile, and he relaxed a little. "All right, Panther," she told him. "For the time being, at least, I'll work with Star Wolf, on two conditions. First, you do not hurt any innocent bystanders, and second, do not kill Fox. I want him to realize the magnitude of the mistake he has made." _

"_It's a deal, then," he replied. Then he leaned over and whispered softly in her ear, "And Krystal, if things don't work out between you and McCloud, perhaps you would consider staying with me instead?"_

"_Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Caroso," she admonished him. "_If_ things don't work out with Fox, and _if_ you want me to stay with you, you will need to be on your _very_ best behavior, is that understood? Prove to me that you can be more reliable than Fox, and I'll consider it." She got up from her seat and the two of them began to make their way towards the exit._

* * *

Kursed sat up suddenly and blinked. It was odd; why that recollection _now_? She hadn't thought about that time in her past at all since it had happened. Perhaps there were certain parallels between her situations then and now; she had been co-opted into another group, in preparation for an attack on a difficult enemy position both times. The similarities ended there, though; Panther had possessed ulterior motives for recruiting her, whereas Shadow's little group was simply liaising with her on a mission whose goals they both shared already. In retrospect, going with Panther had been a very unwise decision, the real beginning of her downfall. Hopefully, Shadow had better plans in mind for her participation in this endeavor.

She checked the chronometer function on the wristcomp she wore on her left wrist; it was three hours after local midnight. There was no point in going back to sleep now; more than likely Omega Squad was going to mount their assault on the Purists' fortress very soon. She stood up and began walking around, letting her body wake up in preparation for the upcoming battles ahead.

While pacing, she decided to check up on the others. She walked around to the side of the _Infiltrator_ where Sondra and Michael had been working on the special missiles. The components and casings that had been scattered over the ground were now put away, and the missiles themselves were nowhere to be seen. She looked up and saw warheads protruding from the _Infiltrator_'s launch pods where previously there had been none, so she assumed the missiles had been loaded without incident. Of course, if there _had_ been an "incident", she might not have been around to reflect on it, given what Michael had said about the explosive yield of those warheads.

The two techies were now sitting by the nose of the shuttle, eating a late and somewhat hasty dinner. Sondra took one bite out of the pressed field ration bar and grimaced. "This tastes like chicken," the green-haired raccoon said in disgust.

"What's wrong with that?" Michael asked around a mouthful of his own ration.

Sondra held up the package so he could read it. "It says 'Spinach Alfredo' on the label."

"Care to trade? Mine is sweet-and-sour pork," the human offered. Sondra took the offered packet, carefully broke off a section, and popped it into her mouth. After a couple of seconds of chewing, she asked, "Is that trade offer still on the table?"

"Sure," Michael replied, offering her the rest of his ration and taking what remained of hers. Kursed absently noted that the human was the only person she hadn't heard the ring-tailed hacker mouth off at one time or another. She moved on and found Zeke and Edgar checking up on their respective weapons. Zeke's chosen piece was a device that resembled a rocket launcher, except it 

appeared to fire energy blasts instead of self-propelled explosives. Edgar was working on the same long-barreled rifle she'd first seen him holding when she walked into camp. It seemed to fire solid projectiles, which seemed quaint in this era of energy weapons, except when one stopped to consider that the weapon would _not_ fire a visible shot that would give away the shooter's position.

She had no interest in talking to either of them, so she moved on to see what Shadow and Eilarra were doing to prepare. She found the two of them near the edge of the camp, a fair distance away from the others, talking softly to each other. She couldn't eavesdrop on Shadow's mind, especially from this distance, but the ocelot was not so closed off. She was disciplined, to be sure, but she also seemed a little agitated by whatever conversation she and the ebon-furred fox were having.

As Kursed came closer, she could make a tenuous contact with the feline medic's mind; enough to hear their conversation. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and the words became clearer.

"Remember, we're not here to paint the walls red," Eilarra said to Shadow.

"Yeah, I know," he replied. He was looking down at the ground, not meeting her gaze.

The feline female gently placed a hand on his cheek and redirected his attention back towards her face. "It wasn't your fault," she whispered softly. Her emotional sense was a mix of old hurt remembered and concern for the individual that currently stood in front of her. "There wasn't anything you could have done differently then, that would have changed the outcome."

"In my head I know that," he replied, sorrow thick in his voice. "But in my heart…she wouldn't have been there at all if it weren't for me. In a way it _is_ my fault… that she died. It should have been _me_; _I'm_ the one who should be…" He broke off, unable to continue.

Eilarra looked up at his face, compassion evident on her features. "She was there because she loved you," the ocelot said gently. "Would you deny her the right to choose the course of her life? Her love was her last gift to you; don't throw it away because you feel things should have happened differently. You can't change the past; don't beat yourself up over something you can't alter." A small smirk crept across her mouth. "Besides, I'm sure there are plenty of guards who would be happy to do that for you."

"They might _try,_" he replied with a certain amount of pique in his voice. "But they'll fail." His mood seemed to have altered with the other's encouragement and support; he was once again, the confident, slightly cynical individual that Kursed recalled from her previous meetings with him. Still, the implications of that conversation were eye-opening indeed. Kursed was willing to go out on a limb and guess that the third individual the two of them referred to was Shadow's wife; apparently, he felt responsible in some way for her death, and felt unworthy of his own continued survival. Eilarra's encouragement to him struck a chord within the vixen's heart; perhaps, if she'd kept ties to some of her own friends, she wouldn't have had to leave Lylat in shame they way she had.

She moved away before they could come across her and realize she'd been eavesdropping on their conversation. All the same, she had a couple of questions that she wanted to ask him. She leaned against the side of the shuttle and waited for him to come around the corner. "You know," she said, "you never told me what it was that _you_ did here."

He was silent for a little while, deciding how to best answer her question. Finally, he said, "My areas of expertise are unarmed and close-quarters combat, as well as stealth, scouting, and espionage. I pick the clearest way to a target, and if it isn't _completely_ clear, I eliminate the obstacles."

Her eyebrows raised in surprise at the matter-of-fact way he'd just described his job. "You're an _assassin_?"

"I'm a _pathfinder_," he corrected. "I prefer to avoid leaving a trail of bodies wherever I go, but if someone threatens the safety of my friends, I will not hesitate to remove them as a threat. That does not necessarily mean kill them, but if it is the only way, I will not hesitate."

"If you're so concerned about their safety, why not leave them behind and do all this yourself?" The question was more than a little pointed, but his attitude on the matter came perilously close to touching on personal issues on her part. "You'd keep them all out of harm's way."

"There's more to consider than just the safety of the rest of the squad," he told her. "They each can do things I can't, or can't do as well. Sondra has a way with computers that means we keep her around despite her attitude, Michael can take a pile of junk and make a spy camera out of it, Edgar is our best shooter and _second_ best pilot, Zeke has the extra mass to carry things that would make me topple over if I tried to pick them up, and Eilarra's medical expertise has saved everyone's lives on more than one occasion. If I had my way completely, I'd be out here by myself, taking all the risks; but their involvement greatly increases the likelihood of a successful mission, and looking out for each other greatly reduces the chance one of us will get killed. That's why we work as a team."

Kursed folded her arms across her chest and seemed to stare off into space. "I can think of someone else who could have benefited from that lecture."

"Hey, if you two are done playing grab-ass, we're ready to go," Sondra's voice sounded from the camp. Shadow simply grimaced at the suggestive remark, but the azure vixen was nearly apoplectic with fury.

"How _dare _she imply that I would allow…" Kursed's voice trailed off as she moved to violently correct the younger female about the situation, but Shadow grabbed her arm to stop her. She yanked her arm out of his grip, but got the impression he hadn't actually been trying to restrain her.

"Take it easy," he said. "Sondra's skills with technology are astounding, but her people skills leave a bit to be desired. Don't take what she said personally."

"You heard what she said!" the vixen fumed.

"Are you objecting to the accusation in general or me in particular?" There was no insult in his tone, simply curiosity.

"You might not care if people think you're easy, but I don't appreciate being thought of as a shameless tramp!"

"People will sometimes say things you don't like," Shadow said evenly. "If you get all worked up over every little thing people say, you give those who anger you power, of a sort, to control you."

He was right, but that somehow made it even harder to maintain control. The truth was, Sondra's insinuation hit far too close to old but still-sore wounds in her psyche. One of the accusations leveled at her before she had left Lylat was that she had abandoned Fox on a whim to take up with Panther, and that she had been sleeping with the feline. Nothing could have been further from the truth, but even though she had tried to explain the true circumstances behind her departure, people had seemed all too ready to believe the worst about her, and nothing she said or did seemed to change their minds.

Slowly she brought her ire under control, but it still simmered beneath the surface. If anyone said anything along those lines again, she would swiftly make them regret those words. She looked up to see that Shadow had already moved on, and was giving the raccoon a stern warning about who she insulted and when. Although Sondra made a show of protest, trying to keep up her devil-may-care front, she did seem to understand how close she had come to provoking violence.

After all the supplies were readied and everyone had outfitted themselves as they saw fit, it was finally time to move out. Everyone assembled at the edge of the camp, armed and loaded. Every member of Omega Squad was dressed in sneak suits – matte black outfits that reflected little or no light and would also serve to obscure infrared images to a certain degree. Zeke had his bazooka-like weapon slung on his back, with the carry strap across his chest; Edgar held his weapon cradled in his arms; Shadow was armed with the heavy pistol she'd first seen him with as well as a pair of foot-long bladed weapons that seemed to fall between long knives and short swords; and even Eilarra carried a pistol, holstered on her right hip.

The only person who didn't have a weapon was Sondra. As Kursed approached the group, she overheard the raccoon arguing with Shadow over the matter; "Hey how about a gun?"

Shadow balanced a more normal-sized pistol by its trigger guard on one finger, but didn't hand it over to her yet. "Promise not to shoot me in the butt again?" he asked.

"I make no guarantees," the hacker replied.

"No gun until you're on station, then," was his simple answer. He chuckled at her display of petulant outrage, although it was more show than real. It seemed that everyone was ready to go, except:

"Where's Michael?" Kursed asked.

"He's staying on the _Infiltrator_," Shadow said. "He's going to launch our little distraction plan when we're in position, and he's going to keep our escape route ready once we've gotten everything we've come for here. Ed's going to cover us while we move in, then he'll fall back to the _Infiltrator _as well, to help keep an eye out for trouble. The rest of us will be going in; our first order of business will be to get Sondra to a computer terminal where she can hopefully neutralize or subvert some of the security systems. After that, it depends upon what we find when we get inside. We find Bertrand's location and break him out, and check for any other prisoners of special note being held there."

"Sounds like a plan," Kursed replied absently. "Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and you haven't told me where I fit in here."

"If you feel up to it, I'd like you to help me sniff out traps and ambushes. Between the two of us, we should be able to find any nasty surprises left for intruders."

"I thought you said all the guards should be busy with damage control."

"_Should_ be, yes, but there might be stragglers or extra guard details, and the Purists also like to place automated gun traps on secure areas. If someone without the proper authorization enters those areas…"

"I see," she said. "So, are we ready to go?"

"Yep. Let's move out everyone. Maintain comm silence as much as possible."

* * *

_Author's notes: This was originally going to be a bigger chapter, with the actual attack included, but it started growing beyond all belief. I decided to break it up into two smaller chapters; don't worry, the next one is coming up real soon. Thanks to everyone who has commented on all of my stories, and to those who are closely following the sequence here. As always, kudos and critiques are equally welcome.  
_


	7. Assault on the Fortress

**Chapter 6: Assault on the Fortress**

The party moved in silence through the forest, with hardly a snap of a twig or the rustle of leaves to betray their presence. Most of the members of Omega Squad wore full-body sneak suits and headgear that helped cover fur that might show up in the darkness. Shadow and Edgar were the only ones who didn't have full-body outfits; Edgar's ended shy of his wrists and didn't have the head cover, and Shadow's was just a sleeveless body stocking with a vest over top of that. All of them, Kursed included, were for all intents and purposes invisible in the dead of night.

They made their way towards the fortress, grim wraiths coming to bring nightmares to those who as yet were unaware of their presence. It seemed to the vixen that the trip back to the fortress took less time than she recalled the trip to the camp taking, but likely that was because they were moving at a faster pace than before. Within a half an hour, they had made it within sight of their objective, and were in place and awaiting the distraction. Shadow tapped the comm signaler clipped to his left shoulder three times, sending out a staccato burst of static that would mean nothing to anyone who wasn't listening for it, but was loaded with import to the individual who sat at the weapons console of the shuttle that waited deeper in the forest.

In the _Infiltrator's_ cockpit, Michael Bertrand sat at the weapon systems console, feeling nervous. He was normally a pacifistic individual, but on the other hand, his friends were risking their lives to help rescue his father. Those factors overrode his normal concerns about taking lives; each of the soldiers in the garrison was a threat to the success of the mission, the lives of his friends, and less immediately but no less importantly, to everyone in the system who believed in peaceful coexistence with their neighbors, whether furred or not. He pressed the buttons on the firing pad that sent six harbingers of death spiraling out of the shuttle's launch tubes, and on a course to detonate over the fortress's inner compound. After that, all there was left for him to do was wait and hope the rest of the group could handle their parts.

The six missiles arrowed in towards the unsuspecting base. Their casings had been treated with a radar-absorbing coating, and their propellant gave off far less light than a normal warhead would. The personnel in the base would have no idea of what hit them. The first two missiles burst in midair, scattering chaff and white phosphorous charges across the compound, disrupting communications, burning out infrared and light-amplification sensors, and blinding anyone who happened to be unfortunate enough to look directly at the charges. The last four scattered across the width of the base and slammed into barracks and control centers, their concussive warheads shattering the buildings and collapsing them down onto the soldiers who had previously been sound asleep in their bunks. The flares burned out and plunged the area back into darkness, a darkness now rent with the screams and moans of the wounded and the dying.

None of the six interlopers stopped to think about the condition of the soldiers in the fortress. They all knew that if the tables were reversed, none of the men inside would hesitate to shoot them on sight. The missile strike had done a wonderful job of sowing chaos in the enemy's ranks, but there were 

still several sentries on the walls who would be able to see them if they tried to scale the wall now. Edgar took careful aim and began to methodically pick off the sentries one at a time. The long-barreled rifle fired with a subsonic 'boom' that was more felt than heard; the first sentry took the round squarely in the head and toppled off the wall. The second and third both received rounds through their chests, a target easier to hit when they were moving around in an effort to throw off the sniper's aim. Their efforts were all in vain, and in short order the wall was clear of any guards.

Shadow bolted from the edge of the forest, carrying a grapnel launcher in his arms. Kursed was not far behind him, though she had a different method of ascension in mind. The black fox took careful aim and launched a line up towards the top of the wall; the line played out ten meters of length before the hook dropped down to catch on a parapet. He began scaling the wall, while she stuck the end off her staff in the ground and pressed the glyph on it that activated its Rocket Booster. A pulse of energy traveled down the length of the staff and discharged, launching her up the wall. She had the satisfaction of seeing shock on his face for a split second as she shot past him and landed lightly on the top of the wall while he was still halfway up.

She took a moment to make sure that the area was still secure while Shadow continued to climb up the wall. When he finally made it to the top, he looked at her in astonishment. "How did you do that?" he blurted out.

"Sorry, it's a secret," she said, satisfaction at finally being able to one-up him evident in her voice. However, he simply shrugged and pulled the hook off the wall in preparation for rappelling down to the ground on the other side of the wall. She waited until he was all the way down, then took the line in her own hands and slid expertly down; coming to a landing bare seconds after she had left the top. Shadow was already on his way to the small auxiliary hatch on the wall. It was little more than a waste ejection port, but it was at ground level, and more importantly would not be wired as heavily for surveillance; after all, who would expect someone to infiltrate through the garbage chute? A couple of minutes later and the hatch was open, the rest of the black-clad figures pouring through, unnoticed in the chaos taking place a little ways away. Edgar was already falling back to the shuttle; his sniper rifle would be a disadvantage in the narrow confines of the base's hallways and corridors.

Shadow had gathered up several of the guns that the sentries had dropped when the y were killed. He passed them out to a couple of the others then offered one to Kursed. "Laser carbine?"

"Why bother," she asked," when I have this?" She held up her staff for him to see.

"And I have this," he said, tapping the grip of the pistol holstered on his shoulder, "but these will have plenty of reloads available; they're standard-issue firearms for most soldiers." The vixen took one and felt its heft in her hands, then sighted on an imaginary point on the wall and fired a quick burst. She decided she liked the firing characteristics, and it would help save energy in her staff for when she really needed its powers. She slung her weapon on her shoulder and held the carbine readily in her hands.

The group made its way stealthily around the chaos of men trying desperately to bring the damage done by the missile strike under control. A door in the central structure, the largest and most imposing building within the massive, sprawling compound, yielded to the intruders a couple of minutes after Sondra jacked into the security pad and overrode the controls. They moved quickly and quietly through the nearly deserted hallways, stopping only once or twice to avoid damage-control groups as they hurried towards the sites of the greatest damage. Shortly they came to a door that led to the central security and surveillance nexus. The group halted a few steps before the turn that would lead them to the door; there were two guards stationed outside the room, each armed and jumpy as a result of the commotion upstairs. Shadow flexed his knees and then _leapt_ two meters straight into the air, catching hold of the pipes and conduits that ran along the ceiling and using them to pull himself up into their cover.

The black fox made his way stealthily over the pipes, creeping up on the guards by the door without them suspecting a thing. Any noise he might have made was drowned out by the racket of the emergency situation upstairs. When he was directly over the two, he pulled the knives from sheaths on his forearms and dropped down between them. There was no warning; one second the men were standing at attention, the next they were crumpling to the ground, throats gushing fountains of blood. Shadow waved the rest of the group over, and Sondra got to work opening the door that led in to the security station. A few minutes later and they were inside, with the literal nerve center of the base at the fingertips of a master hacker.

"Just give me a little time and I can pull a prisoner roster," Sondra said absently. The green-haired raccoon began methodically hacking her way past security firewalls and passwords, opening up the schematic of the base as well as accessing some of the security systems. Finally she found what she was looking for; "Here, Michael's dad is being held here." She pointed to a section of what looked like solitary confinement cells, within a larger detention block. The Purist forces in this base had little need for housing vast numbers of inmates; there were only a few prisoners that would warrant long-term confinement, and most disobedient soldiers were simply shot. The indicated area was one level down and a few halls over from their current position.

Shadow leaned over and asked, "Any other prisoners?"

The hacker tapped a little more on the keyboard before answering, "No, none listed here."

Shadow was visibly disappointed, and Kursed couldn't help but ask Eilarra, "Who's he hoping to find?"

"Some of his family is missing and unaccounted for," the ocelot replied. She, too, had been hoping there was someone else here also. "He was probably hoping that one of them might be the 'someone important to him' that was mentioned in the other message."

"Oh well," the vixen replied, not really caring much, since that wasn't on her itinerary. "Let's go ahead and get Bertrand and see what happens from there." Everyone else gave her looks of astonishment at her callous response, but she didn't really care who else was here; the bounty was for Bertrand, and no one else. Shadow didn't say anything, but simply looked away from her and towards the route that would lead them to Bertrand.

"Hey, can I stay here?" Sondra asked. "I think I could do more good here than anywhere else. I've already set us up a secure comm channel; I can call you guys if I find something else or I need help."

"Yeah, go ahead," Shadow said. He tossed her the pistol he'd refused to give her earlier, and said, "If you need help – or even just _think_ you might need help – give us a call and get under cover."

"Will do," she said absently, already absorbed in the world of the computer. The rest of the group followed Shadow down the hall way to the stairwell that would lead them to the first level of the detention center. They descended the stairs and made their way towards the solitary confinement area.

There were several guards on duty there; they spotted the intruders shortly after they entered the area. Shadow, Zeke, and Kursed all returned the fire with their "borrowed" carbines; a hail of laser bolts blasted back at the guards and sent two of them spinning to the floor two stories below. The remaining two took cover behind a partition, which allowed them to fire at will without much chance of getting hit in return. The wolf put away his carbine and unslung the shoulder cannon. He took careful aim at the partition and let fly with a blast of energy as big around as his arm. It blew the barrier into splinters and sent both men who had sheltered behind it staggering in opposite directions, mortally wounded.

Shadow raced past the dying guards and stopped at the door that Sondra had indicated was the room where Doctor Bertrand was being held. He checked the door and, finding that it was locked, motioned to Zeke to take care of it. The wolf grinned and set a small explosive charge against the lock panel and stepped back. The lockpick charge burned through the components and circuitry necessary to keep the door closed, and it was only a matter of seconds for the two males to pry the door open.

Inside sat a middle-aged, haggard-looking human, who had been looking down at the floor until the door creaked open. He glanced up in surprise at the figures that entered through the door, but his attention remained focused on one in particular. He started as he recognized the black fox that stepped into the cell, but Shadow held both hands palms out to show that they were empty and he meant no harm. "It's okay, doc, I'm not going to try to throttle you this time," he said. "Actually, there's something I need you to do for me. Are you ready to vacate this place?"

"I would love to," Bertrand said hesitantly, "but what about…"

"Michael's waiting for you back at the extraction point," Shadow said. Then he grinned slightly and said, "We couldn't have pulled this off without him; you should be proud of him."

"I am," Bertrand said relief evident in his voice. "But I'm gladder that he's just alright."

"Are you well, sir?" Eilarra asked as she stepped into the cell. "Can you walk?"

"I am still mobile," he replied. "The soldiers here are mostly thugs, but they were reluctant to have to carry me around, so they didn't do any lasting damage during my imprisonment here."

"So let's go then, already," Kursed said from the back of the group.

"Wait!" Bertrand protested as he left the cell. "There is another, a fox, being held here. I don't know her name, but she spoke of you fondly. One of the guards here is actually a decent individual; I asked him to send you a message about her captivity here. Did you get it?"

"I got two messages," Shadow said carefully. "So there's someone else being held here besides you?" Despite the calm demeanor he was trying to maintain, Kursed could feel his excitement growing.

"She's being held deeper in the facility," Bertrand told him. "Be careful; it could easily be a trap for you."

"Doesn't matter." Shadow said. "All right, here's the new plan. Zeke, pass me a few lockpick charges, then you and Eilarra take the doctor back to where Sondra is and wait for us there. I'm going to find who else is being held here and get her out. You," he said while pointing to Kursed, "can either help me search or go with everyone else."

"Hold on," Kursed said. "You heard him, it's probably a trap."

"I don't care," he said. "If someone in my family is being held here, I'll probably never have this opportunity again. You can either help me search, or wait for me to finish on my own, although, the search would go faster if you helped."

Kursed said nothing immediately, but closed her eyes halfway. Shadow probably wondered if she was thinking her answer over, but in reality she was searching with her telepathic sense, trying to narrow down where another prisoner might be held. She found a possibility several more levels down, but… there was something odd about this mind. The contact was fuzzy, almost like seeing someone through a pair of badly out-of-focus glasses. She puzzled over the sensation but didn't dwell on it overly long. "Several floors down," she told him. "Odd, though, that they wouldn't have it listed in the computer logs."

If he was surprised at her sudden acquiescence, he didn't worry about it for long. He thumbed on the comlink and said, "Sondra, we think there's an unregistered prisoner being held here. Can you help pinpoint her location, and maybe clear out some of the security systems along the way?"

"Already tried that, boss man," the hacker replied. "There's nothing in the database at all about any prisoner, not even how many guards are stationed there. There are some automated gun traps, but they're running independent of the central computer, and have their own targeting system and power and ammo sources. Whoever it is down there, they want to hold onto her even more than they do Doctor Bert." Bertrand looked a little bemused by the jocular way the raccoon had referred to him.

"Roger that," Shadow said in reply. "Krys and I are going to see what the deal is here; everyone else is headed back to your position."

"Oh great," she groused. "A bunch of ignoramuses looking over my shoulders and jostling my elbows. I help you find the one man who could save your life, and this is how you repay me?"

Shadow chuckled slightly and raised the comm link back up to his mouth. "I'll find a more appropriate thank you later on, how's that?" He closed the link before she could reply then turned to Kursed. "Are you ready?" he asked her.

"I think this is a bad idea," she said, "but you seem dead set on going, so the best I can do is make sure my best source of leads doesn't get himself killed."

He made a show of cupping a hand to his ear and feigning astonishment. "I'm sorry; did you just give me a _compliment_?"

"Keep that up and you'll be on your own," she said testily. She wasn't in the mood for ribbing about her dearth of affirming comments.

The two of them began to make their way down deeper into the bowels of the fortress, moving carefully and on the alert for any sort of trap or ambush. They passed through the first level without incident, and were halfway through the second when Kursed stopped suddenly, an unpleasant tingle creeping up her spine. A second later it blossomed into a full-blown warning and she shouted, "_Get down!_" Shadow obeyed the shouted warning with alacrity, hitting the floor a split second before panels on the wall slid back to reveal four camouflaged gun traps. The automated turrets began spraying the area with a mix of bullets and laser beams; all at chest, waist, or knee height, which meant the gunfire passed bare inches above the heads of the two foxes.

Shadow drew the large pistol that was holstered over his shoulder, took careful aim, and squeezed off a shot at the nearest trap. A yellow green burst of plasma sizzled into the workings of the device, simultaneously melting the barrel itself and setting off the power supply in an actinic flash of blinding white light. He rolled over so that he was lying prone on the floor instead of on his side, and methodically pumped three more rounds into the remaining traps. Each detonated with a satisfying boom, scattering bits of gun and wall across the floor. When silence reigned again, he waved a hand in the air to check for any more unpleasant surprises, then got back to his feet and put the pistol away again. "Thanks for the heads up," he called to her.

"You're welcome," she replied. The two of them resumed their progress towards the location of the mystery prisoner, with Kursed stopping now and then to check and scan for any traps. They made their way through the rest of the second level without incident, and descended down to the third and final floor. A thought came to her mind, then, and she asked, "Do you have any idea who it actually is that could be here?"

"I have a couple," he replied. "But I'm superstitious about wishing out loud, so I'm going to keep any speculation to a minimum right now." Her ears backed in mild annoyance, but a whisper of emotion coming off of him forestalled a verbal response from her. He had a good idea of just who it was down here, it was something he hoped desperately for; but he was afraid that if he dared voice his hopes aloud, they would all evaporate into nothingness. The intensity of it surprised her; she had thought he was one of those types who focused on the mission above all else. Then she remembered what he had said earlier and realized that for him, the safety of his friends and family _was_, for all intents and purposes, his mission.

This sudden insight into his psyche was forestalled from further investigation by the tingling warning of her danger sense again. "Shadow, wait," she called, and he halted just before going around the corner of the hallway.

"Another trap?" he asked.

"Probably," she answered. They both eased their heads around the corner, ready to duck back if anything activated, but there was nothing yet. The hallway seemed clear, but she knew that was illusion; in all likelihood, the designers of this particular trap set wanted their targets to come a little further out, so that there was no chance of them ducking back behind cover when the trap was sprung.

"I have an idea," Shadow whispered to her. He opened his hand to show her several pieces of debris that he'd collected from the site of the previous trap they had sprung. She took a couple of steps back from the other hallway, and he started chucking the fragments down the hall. The first one he skipped across the floor, the second he threw at about waist level. With the second throw, two panels slid back in the wall, and several of the squares in the floor lifted up to reveal automated turrets. Shadow ducked back as the floor guns zeroed in on his location and fired; bolts of energy chiseled away at the wall, but didn't hit either of the foxes. He ducked out quickly and fired his pistol at one of the floor traps; it exploded in a hail of fire and shrapnel. The others turned to track him, but he ducked back behind the wall before they could adjust their aim.

Kursed dove out into the middle of the intersection. She took her staff and planted the end on the floor, then unslung the carbine from her shoulder and balanced it on one knee. The guns all shifted to target her, and Shadow shouted in alarm, "What are you doing?! Get back under cover!" She ignored him and started firing away at the floor traps. Her fire chipped away at the nearest one, until it finally ground to a halt with a clunk, smoke pouring from every crack and seam. The other guns opened fire, and Shadow was certain he would watch her die under the hail of energy they pumped out, but the beams stopped a foot away from her face, repelled by the force field her staff now projected. The barrage created a pattern of ripples along the energy barrier, like the surface of a puddle in a rainstorm. Shadow shook his head in astonishment at her recklessness, but took advantage of the distraction she provided to incinerate the wall traps with shots from his pistol. She finished off the final floor trap, and silence once again reigned in the hallway.

Shadow rounded on her in a heartbeat. "What the hell were you _thinking_?!" he shouted. "You nearly gave me a heart attack just now!"

"Last I checked, I wasn't under _your_ authority," she replied icily. "I'll do as I please."

"_Not _when you jeopardize the success of this mission!" he retorted heatedly. "You might not answer to anyone but yourself, but would it kill you to consider other people's feelings before you act? I'm not the mind-reader here; I thought for sure you were going to your death." His voice held a mixture of relief that she was well and anger at the scare she had given him.

"You don't tell me what to do," she said with finality. But then her expression softened, just the least little bit, as she realized that part of his anger was due to concern for her well-being. "However, I'll give you some advance warning in the future."

His ire cooled a little at that, and he turned to look down the hallway. "Detect anything else?" he asked her.

"The way ahead should be clear," she said. The two of them moved through the hallway, past the gutted and withered remains of the auto-guns that had tried to bar their progress. They were getting closer to the prisoner, she could feel it. Kursed closed her eyes for a second to better focus on the sensation of the mind she was homing in on. The contact was still very hazy but yet, strangely, there was something almost _familiar_ about it, now. The mind she was sensing seemed vaguely aware of the commotion gong on upstairs, but in a detached, uninterested manner like she was too far away to be affected. Kursed wondered if the prisoner had been drugged, or had endured sleep deprivation as an interrogation tactic; either could account for what she was sensing.

They neared the final corner and came to a halt. Shadow carefully edged his way around, sense alert for any hint of trouble. He didn't see any immediately, so he rounded the corner and had taken a few steps down the path when he heard a quiet 'ping'. He glanced up at the ceiling and suddenly began backpedaling towards the intersection, a split second before a series of gunshots echoed through the hall. There was no visible flash, no glow of energy beams, but a line of craters erupted behind the retreating fox as he dove back to cover.

"Ceiling guns," he stated simply.

"Of course," Kursed replied. "There have been traps in the floor and walls, I was wondering when they'd put some in the ceiling. What kind do you think they are?"

"Solid projectile types; they don't want someone marking the gun locations by the flash of energy beams, and it was too dark to see where precisely they are. They also seem a bit smarter than the previous traps; as soon as I was out of view, they stopped firing." He gestured towards her staff. "Does that pretty stick of yours have any more tricks in it?"

"Call it a stick again and I'll use a few on you," she growled. "But the one I showed you earlier should do just fine."

"The force field? I don't know; it seems like a dicey proposition…"

"Discussion's over," she told him, at the same time darting out into the middle of the hall and raising her staff's force field mere seconds before the guns opened up on her position. There was little light to see by, but Shadow's enhanced night vision was barely able to pick out three different muzzle flashes; he grimaced at the vixen's impulsiveness, but had to admit she had some very good tricks up her sleeve – well, if she'd been wearing sleeves. He took careful aim with his captured carbine, not wanting to spend the few shots remaining in his pistol's power cell, and blasted each gun apart while it focused on an essentially invulnerable target.

"Is that all of them?" Kursed asked after the room had fallen quiet once again.

"Should be," Shadow replied. "Of course, the idea behind a good trap is that you _don't_ see it until you trigger it, but I think the area is clear for now. Let's find out who's behind Door Number One."

Kursed snorted in amusement at his flip remarks, but Shadow was already setting a charge against the lock panel of the door. They moved out of the way as the small explosive burned through the components of the locking mechanism, then Shadow carefully swung the door open. Dim light spilled into the darkened cell, illuminating the form of a somewhat ragged-looking vixen lying on a cot. Her eyes cracked open at the intrusion then opened wide in surprise as she saw the two foxes standing in the entrance of her cell.

The prisoner had scarlet fur, red as a sunset's glow, except for white on her muzzle, throat, chest and belly, and the tip of her tail. Her hair fell past her shoulders when she sat up, and her bangs danced lightly just above her forehead. Her eyes had brilliant emerald-colored irises, and she possessed a slim and graceful figure. All of those details were only a secondary observation to Kursed's mind however; all of the bounty hunter's attention was riveted on a ring of cuneiform glyphs that circled the other vixen's right arm, just below the shoulder. Even as her own mouth dropped open in shock, though, she heard Shadow exclaim, his voice thick with joyous disbelief: "_Amber_!"

His expression was mirrored in her face as she slowly managed to get to her feet and said, "_Arlen_?! Big Brother, is it really you?"

* * *

_Author's notes: So, my first gunfight scene; I hope I pulled everything off well. Shadow/Arlen has found someone very precious to him, but escaping from the fortress will be no easy task. Complications will arise of course; next couple of chapters should have brawls, gunfights, and space action, and I'll expound a little bit on Amber's and Dr. Bertrand's characters. Please review if you read this chapter, tell me what I did good and what might need some work. I'll entertain questions unless they would lead to plot spoilers.  
_


	8. Escape From the Fortress

**Chapter 7: Escape From the Fortress**

Kursed stared in shock as Shadow took two strides into the cell, scooped up the vixen in a hug and spun her around in sheer joy. The wild emotions coming off of both of them were overwhelming and uncomfortable, and she turned her attention away from the reunion to lessen the impact. Even so, she could still hear what they were saying. The normally stoic fox was so overcome by emotion that he could barely speak; Amber was a little more articulate, but all she said was, "It's you; it's _really_ you!" before she buried her face in his shoulder and wept with joy at their reunion.

It took a few seconds for her to grasp the implications of the exchange between them; in the euphoria of their reunion, Amber had called him by his real name. Kursed turned back around to face the two of them, her eyes glinting with mischief. Shadow noticed her gaze and asked, "What?"

"Arlen?" she asked simply, though the hint of a smirk on her muzzle gave away her thoughts.

"Don't start," he growled. His ears flattened back against his skull as he said this, though his irritation was a little exaggerated.

"He doesn't like it when strangers use his name," Amber spoke up suddenly.

Kursed's attention shifted to the other vixen, her eyes wandering between the two foxes. "You said he's your brother?"

"That's right," Amber replied.

"You two look nothing alike."

"Well… that's because I'm actually adopted," the red vixen replied a bit hesitantly. "But he _is_ my brother, even if we aren't related by blood."

"I see," Kursed replied noncommittally. Her musing was interrupted by a beep from Shadow's (Arlen's?) comlink. He pulled it off the clip and said, "Go ahead."

"Looks like you found your cell," Sondra's voice echoed from the comm. "Who was in there?"

"My sister," he replied.

"Seriously?!" Eilarra said from near the edge of the microphone's pickup range. "I…that's wonderful news!"

"Dude, you never told me you had a sister," Zeke broke in.

Shadow rolled his eyes and brought the link back up to his mouth. "Zeke, do you really think I'd have _trusted _you with that sort of information? Besides, until just recently she would have been underage anyway. But I don't think Sondra called just to ask how things went."

"I hate to cut short the family reunion, but you guys need to get going," the raccoon's voice came back on the line. "The guards have pretty much got everything under control outside, and they'll be looking for payback soon. I think there was an alarm or something on those cell doors; there's an alert out on the local comm channels and everyone's going to be headed your way first."

"We've stirred up the hornet's nest and need to leave before we get stung," Shadow said. "Thanks for the heads-up." He hesitated for a moment then said, "You guys might want to head back to the _Infiltrator_ soon. If the guards corner you in there you might not be able to get out in time."

"But there's so much data I haven't sorted through yet-"

Shadow cut her off in mid-sentence. "Zeke, even if you have to throw her over your shoulder and _carry_ her out, make sure everyone gets going _now_. Draining the databanks won't do us any good if everyone gets captured, right?"

"All right man, we're on our way out," the wolf's voice came back over the speaker. "Don't make us wait too long for you."

Shadow closed the link and put the device back on its clip on his shoulder, then turned to the others. "I don't think the way we came would be a good exit route. Let's find another way out of here." He paused for a moment and thought that Kursed was staring intently at him; then he took a longer look and realized that the blue vixen's attention was actually focused on Amber. "What is it now?" he asked her.

"Nothing," she replied. "None of your concern." In point of fact, that was a bald-faced lie; she recognized the emblem on Amber's arm as being the clan crest of one of the plains tribes from Cerinia. The discovery had the usually guarded and aloof bounty hunter off-balance; for a brief moment, the mask slipped, and the other two caught a glimpse of the yawning abyss of loneliness that made her heart ache so. But the moment passed and the impassive mask was back in place, leaving them to wonder if that impression had been merely fanciful. "We need to get out of here before the guards catch up with us," she said. She turned away to check the hallway, and missed the glance that Amber gave her brother, and the slight shake of his head in response; now wasn't the time to press the issue.

Amber took three steps outside the cell before she stumbled, managing to keep herself from falling by grabbing the other vixen's shoulder as a support. The unexpected contact startled the bounty hunter, and Amber let go as soon as she found her footing again. "Sorry," the younger vixen mumbled. "Still haven't gotten my balance back completely."

"You alright, Amber?" Shadow asked, concern evident in his tone.

'Yes, I'm fine," she replied. "Just recovering from the rough treatment they give prisoners here." She saw the look in his eyes and hastily added, "Nothing too bad, just the usual treatment to remind prisoners who's in charge. One lieutenant, his name is Matthew, is actually a decent individual; he made sure I wasn't mistreated too badly."

"Fortunately for him," Shadow growled, anger roiling off him like heat from a furnace.

Amber saw his ire and grabbed his arm. "Please, let's just go home," she pleaded with her brother. "I don't want to spend any more time here than I have already."

"All right," he said, "but if anyone gets in our way…"

Kursed was taken aback by the change that had come over him. In the blink of an eye, he had gone from joyous to murderous at the news that someone had mistreated his sister. Although Amber's plea had cleared his mind at least somewhat, she still did not want to be one of the unfortunate individuals who would try to block their exit. The group began to move in the only other direction available to them at the moment, staying quiet in order to decrease the odds of being discovered. With so many soldiers arrayed against them, it was only a matter of time before they had to stop and fight, but the longer they could forestall that eventuality, the easier their escape would be overall.

They ascended the first set of stairs without incident, but as they rounded the corner, Amber grabbed her brother's arm and said, "Wait – there are some guards in the next room."

"Are you certain?" he asked her.

"I'm sure," she replied. "There's only about four or five of them, though, we can just go around."

"No, that would leave an enemy force in our rear," her brother replied. "You two wait here, I won't be but a minute." Without waiting for a reply, he vanished into the darkness of the corridor.

* * *

Shadow moved with a swift and silent stride through the hallway. In no time at all, he had arrived at the room where the guards had assembled. He took a few seconds to listen to their conversations, to get an idea for where each one was in the room. It seemed that there were three or four in a group, somewhere, and one pacing off to the side, not really part of the conversation. It would be necessary to neutralize all of them, to prevent an alert from giving away the location of the retreating intruders. He holstered his pistol and pulled a pair of throwing knives from pockets under his vest. This would give him the element of surprise; the knives would be silent and invisible, unlike the flash and report of the pistol.

He opened the door and dove in, startling the guards who were standing in a clump together. There were five of them total; two of them had blast rifles in their hands and were bringing them to bear, which made them the most immediate threat. He threw both knives with a flick of his wrist, one at each guard; they buried themselves in their targets' throats, each man collapsing to the floor with a gurgle and a fount of crimson gushing from lacerated throats. He didn't stop to think about the ease with which those men had died, but charged the other two at the table, closing the distance in the blink of an eye and getting inside the reach of their carbines. He drew one of the long knives from the sheath strapped to his forearm and drove it almost up to the hilt into the third guard's chest. The guard crumpled to the floor with both hands around the handle of the weapon, trying futilely to undo what was already a fatal wound. The fourth tried to bring his carbine around to bear on his enemy, but Shadow drew the other knife across the weapon and sliced it in half, then reversed his swing and cut through the man's throat. The blade hissed through his flesh with barely a tug to mark its passing, and he collapsed along with the rest of his comrades.

The last guard had backpedalled to bring his carbine around and point it at the black fox, but Shadow took a long step towards him and grabbed the barrel of the gun, lifting it up and moving its aim up and away from him. With his other hand he grabbed the human by the throat and lifted him up into the air, slowly squeezing in on his throat in the process. The human let go of the carbine and tried to use his hands to pry the black fox's fingers off his throat, but he might as well have been trying to wrestle a vice, for all the good it did him. As he squeezed, Shadow felt his lips draw back from his teeth in a feral snarl, as the human struggled to breathe past the fingers compressing his windpipe. All the black fox had to do was squeeze a little harder and this last one would be taken care of, but then he heard Amber's voice call out from behind: "Don't kill him!"

Shadow turned to see both Amber and Kursed run into the room, so close behind him that he realized they hadn't waited behind much at all. Amber stared with dismay at the scene in front of her, and she repeated her plea for her brother to spare the man's life. "Why?" he asked her.

"Because he's the one who helped you find us!" he cried. "This is Matthew."

Shadow's eyes widened with shock at what he had almost done. He put the man down and released his grip on the other's throat; the human practically wilted with relief at her intervention, gasping for breath like a fish out of water. Arlen turned away so they wouldn't see the chagrin in his expression; if Amber _hadn't_ intervened, it was entirely possibly he might have killed the human anyway.

"Wow, what did you _do_?" Surprisingly, the question came from Kursed, as she surveyed the carnage.

"I have repressed anger problems," he said, trying to pass off the gravity of the situation with a flip remark.

"I see," she said neutrally. "And now?"

"Still angry," he said in reply. "It's just no longer repressed." He looked up to Matthew, who had managed to get his breathing back under control. "Why did you decide to help us?"

"I…was conscripted into this garrison," Matthew replied. "I never wanted to be here, but I had no choice. At first, I was only interested in preserving my own life; deserters and traitors are executed on the spot here. But then I heard about what had happened to you, and learned that Doctor Bertrand and your sister were being held here, and I felt…ashamed, that my own selfishness would condemn so many to suffering. I decided that I had to take the risk, to help those I could."

"I see," Shadow replied. "So, what do you want now?"

"If it's at all possible, I want to come with you, I want to leave this place. If I stay, I will more than likely be executed."

Shadow said nothing himself, but his gaze shifted to his sister in inquiry, and she responded, "He's telling the truth. If we leave him here now, it'd be tantamount to murder. Please, let him come with us."

"Alright, then, but we need a faster way out of here. The way we came will likely have lots of angry guards in it." His gaze shifted to Matthew, and held the human's attention. "Do you know of another way out of here?"

"There's a service elevator near the armory," Matthew responded promptly. "It's used as a shortcut between the surface and the weapon stores, in case extra heavy weapons are suddenly needed. It will take us up to a point near the starfighter hangars; from there, it would just be a quick dash thorough the hangar and we'll be outside. "

"Oh, I think we can do a bit better than that," Shadow said with a predatory grin. He clicked his comm on and hailed the rest of his group. "Hey, you guys clear yet?"

"Ed, here," came the response, "we're all out and waiting at the bus for you to catch up."

"I think I'm going to find an alternate means of transportation," Shadow told him. "How are the AA defenses out there?"

"Sondra disabled them with a general lockdown before we left," the raven replied. "She's sitting in a corner right now sulking because you didn't let her stay on the computer system any longer."

"Nice," Shadow said. "About the disabling part, not the sulking part. Can you guys come over to the hangar bay? We've got a defector and an escaped prisoner who need a ride."

"Can do. I'm in the pilot's seat right now; Zeke's manning the quad gun, in case things don't go as smoothly as we'd like."

"When do they ever? Get here as soon as you are able; we might need some covering fire. Over and out." He placed the comm link back on its clip and turned to Matthew. "Lead the way, good sir."

"Um, it's this way," he said, pointing down the hallway. He hesitated for a moment then asked, "Just a little while ago you were about to kill me, but now you seem ready to trust me, based only upon the word of your sister. How do you know I won't turn on you?"

"_I_ don't, but Amber has been here longer than I have, under circumstances that don't favor the buildup of trust," the black fox replied. "If she says you're good, then I trust her judgment. Besides, she's always been good at reading people." Matthew was looking at Shadow, so he missed the smile and wink that Amber directed at her brother at this remark. Kursed, however, did not miss either of them. Matthew pondered that statement for a little while, then decided there wasn't time to puzzle it out, and simply began heading for the elevator.

The small group moved carefully though the halls, maintaining silence s much as possible, both to avoid being overheard and so they could more easily detect the approach of enemies themselves. They made it all the way to the elevator unmolested though, with Matthew up front, Shadow slightly behind and supporting his sister with an arm around her shoulders, and Kursed acting as a rearguard. The bounty hunter had her mental senses strained almost to their limits, scanning for any hostile minds in the vicinity. A few patrols had passed close by their position, but their policy of silence had kept them from being detected in the dim emergency lighting.

Matthew knelt down by the elevators keypad and began punching in an authorization code. Shadow drew his pistol and moved up next to Kursed, to help her cover their rear flank in case they were spotted while they were vulnerable. A series of quiet beeps sounded from the keypad as Matthew punched keys, and the black fox worried that they would be overheard. He leaned towards the blue vixen and asked softly, "Detect anyone nearby?"

"Is that all I am to you?" she replied coldly. "A magic sensor system?"

"You have abilities that I don't, and only partly understand," he replied with a trace of hurt in his voice. "I didn't survive as long as I have by being careless or complacent. If you know something I don't, that could easily save lives. Amber's in no condition to fight, or to run for very long, so I would rather not engage the enemy unless we were cornered and had no other option." The calm, matter-of-fact manner in which he spoke belied a fiery passion behind his words, and she heard an underlying thought behind them: _If you had lost everything you cared for, wouldn't you try to hold on to whatever you had left with all your might?_

His rebuke made Kursed feel a little uneasy with the way she'd just assumed he was using her, but it was a very difficult thing for her to trust anyone right now. Her recent experience had been filled with deception, manipulation, and betrayal, and her faith in the integrity of those around her had been almost completely destroyed as a result of that. It was entirely possible that she wouldn't recognize an honest offer now if she saw one, since she was too used to encountering deceit everywhere. His habit of keeping secrets didn't help any, either, but it occurred to her that he was secretive for much the same reason she was; the less people knew about you, the less they could use against you.

Shadow was looking away from her, down the corridor. She reached up and tapped him on the shoulder, and when he was looking at her again, she said, "Maybe my words were a little harsh. I apologize." He looked a little surprised at that, and considered a smart remark in reply, but quashed that impulse and simply nodded in acknowledgement.

At that point, the elevator chimed and the door slid open, spilling a little more reddish light into the corridor. Amber and Michael got in, and Shadow and Kursed were about to follow when a shout echoed through the hall; "Hey! Stop right there!" They turned to see a small detachment of guards running full speed in their direction, weapons at the ready. Shadow pulled the carbine out and fired off a long burst, filling the hallway with dozens of lethal beams of light. He didn't kill any of them, since they were all wearing ablative armor, but the burst did a wonderful job of stopping the guards' charge and making them dive for cover. That was all the time the two foxes needed to jump into the elevator and close the door. The elevator began moving upward, headed for the ground level.

"I locked the controls so no one can recall it once we stop," Matthew told them. "They'll have to take the stairs. You can bet anything they'll have called ahead, though; get ready for a hot reception."

Kursed eyeballed the dimensions of the door. It was just narrow enough… She got an idea. "Everyone, when the door opens, stay behind me. I can project a shield that should protect us if there are guards waiting at the top." Matthew and Amber looked a little dubious at that pronouncement, but Shadow had a rather amused look on his face. She saw his expression and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Putting yourself in harm's way to protect others? We might just make a fine upstanding citizen out of you, yet."

"Quiet, you," she growled. "This isn't just a sudden onset of altruism; I'm protecting my own interests here, too." The pique in her voice was more than a little forced, however, since he did have a point; this was far more than what was strictly necessary to preserve what she was after here. Privately, she still wanted an explanation of what had happened during his captivity, and now she could add an explanation of what another Cerinian was doing all the way over here, to her want list.

Further conversation was forestalled by the chime as the elevator car reached its destination. Kursed squared up to the doors and activated the shield on her staff as they began to open. The precaution was well-founded, as a withering hail of gunfire greeted the four escapees. Most of it was stopped dead as it hit the shield that emanated from the staff, although there were a few that missed high and left scorch marks on the back of the elevator car. Shadow waited until there was a lull in the fire before he popped up and sent a barrage of his own back at the defenders. Most of his shots missed, since the distance was at the maximum effective range of the carbine, but several guards did topple over, either injured or dead. The shots exhausted the remaining charge in his carbine, so he discarded the weapon and drew his pistol instead. The remaining guards had taken cover after several of their number had been incapacitated or killed, and this allowed the fugitives to make their way out onto the catwalk that overlooked the main hangar bay. They took cover behind the railing, though they all knew that this would only be a temporary shelter at best.

"Let's see what we have here," Shadow mused. He poked his head up above the railing to take a look at the various aircraft in the hangar. There were quite a few to choose from, scattered across the floor of the cavernous room, ranging from single-person air/space fighters to larger troop transports. There was a serious collection of air power in this room.

"Are you sure about this?" Amber asked him. "It's been at least ten years since you've even sat in a cockpit; are you sure you'll be able to fly any of those?"

"They say once you learn you never forget," he replied evenly. His gaze began roaming over the assembled fighters, evaluating each of them to see which one would best suit his purposes. "Peregrines, mostly; not what we want, those cockpit are cramped enough for one. A few Sparrowhawk_s_; those might suffice, but let's see what else there is, first… Oh, a Harpy, that'll do nicely!"

"What are those, again?" Kursed asked softly from behind him.

"The tradition here is to name starfighters after birds of prey, with the name reflecting its intended purpose, at least somewhat," Shadow replied. "The dart-shaped ones with the stubby wings are Peregrines, which are used as interceptors; they have one missile launcher under the nose, and twin pulse lasers under the wings. The ones with the broad, anhedral wings are Sparrowhawk_s_, air-and-space superiority fighters; they carry two pulse lasers, one near the end of each wing, a minicannon in the nose, and a missile launcher at the base of each wing. The minicannon fires a sort energy pellet, an energy beam that behaves more like a solid projectile. On a per-shot basis, they're less powerful than a pulse laser, but over time they can tear a target apart faster. The big, ugly one over there is a Harpy, a heavy assault fighter, but it looks different than I remember." He poked his head up again to take a closer look at it, and some other details caught his eye. "Looks like they've been upgrading the Harpy; all right then, that's the one I'll take."

Without further warning he vaulted the railing and dropped down onto the fuselage of a Peregrine starfighter below the walkway, then down to the floor. The impact startled a guard, who had taken cover behind the craft, but a sucker punch from the fox knocked his head back against the side of the fighter, and he slumped to the floor, either dead or unconscious. Shadow looked up to see the rest of his group taking a more roundabout path, utilizing a service stairway that led down to the ground level. He took a step out from cover, but just then the doors on the far end of the hangar swung open, revealing several squads of very irate soldiers behind them. They all opened fire en masse, and the ebony fox was forced to dive back behind the parked starfighter to avoid getting holed. The fighter was low enough to the ground that it offered decent cover, but he was effectively pinned down behind it. He started as he heard something behind him, but it was only Kursed, Amber, and Matthew, taking cover alongside him.

"Don't you ever take the _stairs_?" the bounty hunter whispered fiercely.

"Not if I don't have to," he quipped. He risked a peek out from behind his cover and nearly got his nose shot off by a trigger-happy human. He pulled his head back behind cover in just the nick of time, and turned to face the others. "Looks like we're well and truly pinned down. It's only a matter of time before they try to flush us out, or flank our position. They don't want to risk setting off a fuel explosion, or they'd have trashed this fighter already to get to us, but I don't see any way for us to get out of this. I'm open to suggestions."

Kursed tossed a small explosive charge up and caught it in one hand. "I was going to suggest some of these, but… there is the little matter of all the aviation fuel in here."

"Well, it was a nice thought…" Shadow said ruefully. "I'm sorry I got you involved in this, but it looks like we're stuck." He hesitated for a moment then asked, "If it comes down to it, could you take Amber and get out of here?"

"No!" Amber shouted. "I'm not leaving without you! If you die here, then…then I'll be all alone! I don't care if we don't get out; I'm not leaving you behind!"

Both Shadow and Kursed were taken back by the vehemence of her outburst, but there was also an intensely visceral emotion behind it that overwhelmed the bounty hunter's normal mental barriers. _Fear…helplessness…isolation…abandonment_…all these things pulsed out from the other vixen's psyche, an intensely emotional memory that left Kursed momentarily breathless. It took her a few seconds to regain her composure, and when she did, she saw Shadow looking at her a little uncertainly. Kursed looked back at him, shrugged, and said, "I don't think she'd go, regardless." She eyeballed the layout of the floor, trying to fix as much of it in her mind's eye without exposing herself to hostile fire. It wasn't in her nature to accept defeat, but at the time, she couldn't see any way out of their predicament. She was about to suggest risking the explosives anyway, when a new sound began to fill the air; the drone of a transport shuttle's hover thrusters.

Shadow's comlink crackled and he practically snatched it off the clip in his eagerness to answer. "Hey, looks like you could use a hand, there, buddy," Edgar's voice sounded from the speaker. "Keep your heads down for just a moment and we'll clear these bastards out in no time." The _Infiltrator_ came into view at the mouth of the hangar, its chin-mounted minicannon live and seeking targets. In the cockpit, the raven smiled grimly (at least as much as an avian with a stiff beak _could_ smile) and depressed the thumb trigger on the control yoke. The six barrels of the chin gun began spinning and belched out a long, staccato burst of gunfire, the shots coming out at over a hundred and thirty rounds a minute. The cannon linked with the HUD visor he wore over his eyes, its aim aligning with the direction of his gaze as he methodically swept the area clear of guards while taking care to avoid the fuel tanks in the back of the hangar. When the dust had settled and the smoke had cleared enough for the escapees to see again, bodies and parts of bodies littered the floor, and no living guards were in sight.

Shadow held the comm link up to his mouth, and said, "Thank s for the save, Ed."

"Hey, you called for a bus," was the raven's jocular reply. "Can't collect any fares if our passengers get shot up before they board." The _Infiltrator_ turned sideways and presented the port access hatch to the fugitives in the hangar. "All aboard who's coming aboard," Edgar called.

"You and you get on board now," Shadow said to Matthew and Amber; they nodded and made haste towards the shuttle. He turned to Kursed and asked, "May I assume you have a ride somewhere nearby?"

"That's correct," she replied, "but it's a little far to walk from here. If you could give me a ride, I can help provide cover on our way out of here."

He grinned and said, "The Harpy is a two-seat craft, I think I can give you a lift." He tapped the comm link and said, "I'm going to take our friend back to her ship. You guys head for space, we'll meet you in orbit." He got an acknowledgement over the comm, and the _Infiltrator_ turned ponderously and began heading up and out of the atmosphere. Shadow and Kursed turned and headed for the somewhat ungainly craft sitting near the hangar bay exit. The canopy was already open, so Shadow simply vaulted up and into the pilot's seat, strapping himself in and starting the pre-flight checklist. Kursed used the portable stair next to the fighter, and climbed in a bit more sedately. As she secured herself in, she heard Shadow mumbling to himself as he ran through the items on the preflight.

"Let's see here, engines, good; thrusters, good; sensors are tuned and ready; inertial compensator at ninety-five percent dampening; shields are green; pulse lasers are green; minicannons are green; dorsal laser turret, green; missile pods – damn, empty; energy cannon, charge at ten percent and climbing. Looks like we're good to go."

"What's that last one do?" Kursed asked him, curiosity getting the better of her.

"It's a high-energy weapon designed to be used against capital ships," he replied. "It's a pop-gun compared to some of the weapons on the bigger vessels, but it can still punch holes in the smaller ones, if you hit a sensitive area."

"Nice." She waited for a moment while he pulled on a flight helmet then said, "You said they were upgrading this craft; so what was the original version like?"

"It's an old design that was ridiculously ammo-dependant," was his terse reply. He flipped a couple of switches to seal the canopy and start the engines. The craft began to hover a half-meter or so off the floor, then slowly turned and began heading out of the hangar. "They were insanely powerful while the bullets and missiles lasted, but once those ran out, these birds were critically vulnerable to other starfighters." A shout came from one of the few guards that had survived the _Infiltrator's_ gunfire, and a few rounds bounced off of the fighter's shields. Once the Harpy was out of the hangar, he turned the craft so that it was facing the way it had come. "The minicannons on this particular one seem to have been upgraded to the energy-based system; they've added two pulse lasers for extra punch while dogfighting, and a laser turret on top to discourage opportunists from taking advantage of the ship's relatively poor maneuverability. Let's see what this baby can do."

Shadow powered up the weapons systems and sighted in on the aircraft and fuel storage tanks in the hangar. He squeezed the triggers on the flight stick and both the pulse lasers and minicannons roared to life, spraying searing beams of light across the hangar. The pulse lasers were mounted at the base of the wings, and had firing characteristics that were remarkably similar to the _Cloudrunner's_ twin laser cannons. The minicannons on this craft seemed to be of a slightly larger caliber than the _Infiltrator's_ nose gun, and were mounted a bit further out, on the underside of the wings. The missile pods that he had cursed for being empty rode just above each wing, a little behind her seat in the cockpit, while the particle cannon was situated in the ship's nose. The parked starfighters took hits on their unshielded hulls and exploded one after the other, then a beam pierced one of the fuel tanks and a massive orange-red fireball erupted in the hangar, touching off the rest of the fuel tanks as well. The bounty hunter could easily sense the satisfaction and enjoyment he felt at the destruction he had caused, and shook her head in mild amusement. "Pyromaniac," she muttered under her breath.

"And proud of it," he said smugly. She'd forgotten that with his enhanced hearing he could hear her comment as plainly as if she had spoken in a normal conversational voice. "That should take care of any pursuit out of here; let me go drop you off, and then we'll join the others."

He brought the Harpy's nose around to point in the rough direction of their former campsite and lifted the craft awkwardly into the air. It jolted and bounced as he tried to get a feel for its maneuvering, causing his passenger to swear and shout, "Just where did you learn to fly?!"

"Well, I took a crash course a few months ago and…" he trailed off as he felt her glaring daggers at the back of his head. "Bad choice of words?" he asked innocently.

"Yes, _very_ bad," she growled with not a trace of humor in her voice. She pointed him in the direction of her fighter and said, "Head that way for about two kilometers, then set down. The sooner I'm out of here, the better."

"Pilots hate being passengers," Shadow observed philosophically. "It's a control issue." Then he continued on, in a more serious tone, "I actually learned to fly at the Starfighter Academy, when I was in college. Both of my parents were senior officers in the Navy, but I wanted to pilot starfighters." His mouth crooked into a wry grin as he continued, "They both claimed to not understand why I wanted to play with the little ships when I could play with the big ones." He arrived at the location she had specified and brought the craft down with far more grace than he'd displayed during liftoff. When the Harpy was on the ground, Kursed popped the canopy open and took off her restraints, then vaulted out of the cockpit and headed over to her fighter. It was about two-thirds the size of the Harpy, but possessed much sleeker lines. "Nice ship," came Shadow's voice from behind her, an admiring tone evident in it.

"Thank you," she said, "I'm rather proud of it, myself. It's called the _Cloud Runner_." Kursed climbed into her cockpit via the footholds on the side of the vessel then pulled on her flight jacket and helmet, tipping the HUD visor down over her eyes. She closed her canopy and powered up all the ship's systems, and then engaged her ship's shielding and ramped the throttle up gradually, taking it slow until she was above the trees. Shadow's Harpy was a bit ahead of her at first, until she cut in the throttle and rocket out ahead of him. "Race you!" she taunted him over the comm channel, but all she got in response was a "No contest," remark.

It was clear that the _Cloud Runner_ was faster than the Harpy, even without any boosters engaged. She eased the throttle back a bit, and allowed him catch up as they left the atmosphere and emerged into the airless void of space. The Harpy slid into a wingman position with relative ease, but then it wobbled a bit. "Sorry," Shadow's voice came over the comm system. "They've apparently tweaked the steering system as well. I'm still getting the hang of it."

"So long as you don't run into me, I'll be fine," she told him. The radar on her ship picked up another blip ahead, which corresponded to the _Infiltrator_. She instructed the computer to flag it and the Harpy as friendly targets, and saved their profiles into its memory. She had a feeling that he would need to recognize these ship in the future.

Shadow hailed the ship and asked, "How's everything going there, Ed?" The _Cloud Runner's_ comm system picked up the transmissions without any trouble; apparently they weren't using any encryption scheme. No surprise, since there hadn't been time to set one up in the stolen fighter's comm equipment.

"I have good news and bad news," the raven replied. "The good news is, all our passengers are aboard and secure, and everything here is in good working order right now."

"What's the bad news?" Shadow asked, although he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew what it would be.

"We've been picking up intermittent contacts on the long range sensors," Ed replied. "Can't get a clear ID on them, but somehow I don't think they're coming to wish us a fond farewell. I bet they're waiting for us to get clear of the planet, so that there's nowhere for us to run, before they launch their attack."

"What a day," Shadow mumbled. "Any idea on when they might do that?"

"We have to climb out of the ecliptic plane, before we engage the FTL drive," Sondra's voice came over the speaker. "Best guess is they'll launch their attack within five minutes or so, so they have plenty of time to deal with us before we can make a run for it." The raccoon was still a little sore about being pulled away from the computer before she was done with it, but there was little time for personal pique when their lives were all on the line.

"So why wait?" Kursed asked. "I can go faster than anything else here; I can run out and disrupt their attack before they're ready to launch it."

"It might be a trap," Shadow said. "Or a trick to draw us away."

"So you stay here," she replied. "You can stomp anything that tries to sneak up, and I'm sure you know how good I am at getting out of traps."

"Yeah," he agreed reluctantly. "All the same, be careful." She didn't bother to reply to that, but simply hit her booster and was soon speeding away from the other two craft. She stretched out with her telepathic senses, seeking minds where there should be none. It was much easier to find enemies in the void of space, where there was little else to get in the way, and she soon had her targets; six Peregrines, milling about in a loose formation, their pilots anxious for combat but awaiting the order to engage. She smile grimly; the _Cloud Runner_ had a state-of-the-art sensor camouflage system, and the black and dark blue paint job that she'd had applied to it made it difficult, at best, to see it in the darkness of space. The first warning the enemy fighters had of her presence was when she announced it by raking the lead ship with her lasers. The beams splashed across its shield and did not penetrate, but the attack did a royal job of throwing them into chaos.

Each fighter broke in a different direction, tempting her to follow one of them, but she knew that if she took the bait the rest would come back hard on her tail. Instead she broke away from the group, opening up some distance between her and them and allowing her the time to charge up a homing shot. She bracketed one ship, the one that seemed to belong to the leader, waited for the tone of a solid lock, and then let the shot fly. A blazing sphere of energy leapt from the _Cloud Runner's_ nose and crossed the distance between the two ships in a heartbeat; taking the shields down completely and leaving the fighter open to a merciless follow-up barrage of laser fire. The Peregrine spun out of control, all systems dead and dark, and the rest scattered out of the way, unwilling to be her next target.

Here in this environment, Kursed was like a super-predator, able to pick off the enemy pilots one by one while anticipating and avoiding their return fire with ease. She selected another target, and settled in close behind it. She could feel the pilot's panic as he tried everything he could to shake her off, and she matched every one of his evasive maneuvers perfectly. "There's no escape for you," she whispered to him, even though she knew he couldn't hear her. She pulled the trigger, once, twice, then three more times, and the last shot pierced the fuselage and crippled the interceptor. Its engines went dark and it began drifting, though the pilot was still alive and conscious. She let him go; there was no honor in killing a defenseless opponent, and there were other enemies that were still hale and very dangerous.

The fighter that she had first targeted darted across her vision; so she selected him and finished him off by pumping three laser bursts into the ship. That one exploded and left the enemy forces minus half their number in the course of only a couple of minutes. The remaining Peregrines broke and fled, but they kept unit cohesion and didn't panic; this was a strategic retreat, not a disorganized rout. Something didn't seem right about the situation, which made her wonder if they had a trap nearby. She took a moment to scan the area for any other enemy craft. Her sensors returned nothing, but her telepathy detected a large aggregation of minds, all in a tight group and abuzz with the anticipation of someone about to spring an ambush. They weren't focused on her, however…

Abruptly she reversed course and headed full speed back towards the _Infiltrator_. She punched the afterburner on her ship as well, anxious to warn Omega Squad about the new danger she had just sensed; there was a much larger force coming around the planet, headed straight for the shuttle, As the other craft came into view, she commed the shuttle and warned; "You have incoming, from the other side of the planet." Even as she spoke those words, however, her sensors painted several blobs of red ahead of her position, at long range but rapidly closing the distance. She frowned; just a moment before, they had been moving slowly towards the transport, but now they were racing towards it at all possible speed. As they approached, the blobs began to break up into recognizable formations; another flight of four Peregrines up front, with a group of six or so Sparrowhawks following behind. There was a third and larger dot, lagging far behind the others, but it was too far away to worry about just yet. At the rate they were travelling, the Peregrines would arrive first, and the Sparrowhawks a few minutes later. It seemed a sloppy setup at first, but then she realized what was happening.

"The little group back there was meant to chase us towards this squadron," she theorized. "Either that, or we were supposed to turn and engage the approaching group while those other Peregrines made an attack run from an unprotected flank. But since the other party is in disarray right now, the bigger group is rushing to keep us from escaping."

"Regardless of what they planned before, they don't look like they intend to take prisoners," the raven said tersely over the comm. They're trying to get missile locks… Incoming!" he abruptly shouted as four glowing contrails appeared ahead of them. "Deploying countermeasures." A combination of flares and metallic slivers billowed out from the rear of the shuttle; the decoy measures distracted most of the missiles the way they were supposed to, but one warhead kept its lock and slammed into the rear of the shuttle, its plasma charge exploding in a brilliant flash and shaking the passengers around like peas in a can. The _Infiltrator's_ defensive fields held against the onslaught, but only barely.

"If they take another hit like that, they're toast," Shadow said. He hit his fighter's afterburner and shot towards the incoming enemies. "You guys get clear, I'll run interference. Head for the asteroid ring around the fourth planet."

Kursed hit the _Cloud Runner's_ boost and swiftly caught up with him. "I can't let you have _all_ the fun," she commented.

"Fifty credits say I get more kills than you," he challenged her.

"You're on." She pressed the thumb trigger and began building up a homing shot, though the distance was still too great to get a lock just yet. The Peregrines were in the lead, and therefore the most immediate threat, although the Sparrowhawks would likely prove to be tougher opponents in the long run. There were also the three surviving Peregrines from the other group to worry about. Shadow began jinking and weaving with the Harpy, to make missile locks more difficult, and she started doing the same.

A few seconds later, they were within maximum range for the _Cloud Runner's_ sensors to obtain a lock, and she released the charged beam as soon as she heard the 'ping' of a solid lock. The homing beam splashed across the lead Peregrine's shields and dropped them down to zero, but before she could deliver a follow-up salvo of laser fire, a stuttering wave of glowing needles traced across the Peregrine and pierced the canopy. "Hey!" she shouted indignantly. "Kill-stealer!"

Shadow only chuckled as he broke the Harpy right, sending a combination of pulse laser and minicannons fire at the next target in line. The combo barrage battered down its shield and punched gaping holes in the fuselage, rendering it helpless. "That's two for me," he said calmly. Kursed growled in response and targeted the next Peregrine as it raced past her, doing a tight U-turn to put herself squarely on its tail. This pilot didn't try to evade, but instead hit his afterburner to outdistance her. The maneuver didn't work, as she simply fired off a homing beam and followed it up with a salvo of laser fire that holed the ship and hit the fuel cells. It ripped itself apart in a bright fireball that was snuffed all too quickly by the vacuum of space.

Shadow was chasing the last Peregrine, but since he had no homing weapons on the Harpy, the enemy pilot was doing a better job of staying alive. He must have had some serious guts, too (either that or he was suicidal) since the Peregrine seemed to be trying to get a missile lock on her ship, rather than evading the one behind it. Kursed's sensor board shrieked a warming as it detected a missile lock on the _Cloud Runner_, then added a new tone to warn of a launch. She pulled hard on the controls and the ship jerked sharply to the right; the missile sailed past her with only a few meters to spare. Kursed pulled her fighter up and over in a loop that allowed the enemy fighter to shoot past her position, and came down into a perfect position to finish it off. She pulled the trigger three times, and the Peregrine exploded into a hail of glittering debris. "Ha! Now we're even!" she crowed.

"Don't count your kills just yet," he said. "That was the easy part. And while we were playing tag with these guys, the Sparrowhawks have passed us by." He pointed the Harpy's nose back towards the shuttle and opened the throttle up to full, in order to catch up with the rest of his friends. They were most of the way to the fourth planet in this system, which happened to be a gas giant. The immense tidal forces it generated had pulled apart any celestial body that would have been a moon otherwise, creating an impressive asteroid ring around the whole planet. It was in this ring that the _Infiltrator_ hoped to find refuge, long enough for the two starfighters to take care of their pursuers. Kursed checker her scanners and saw that the entire group of Sparrowhawks was rapidly overtaking the shuttle; they would catch it before it made it to cover unless they were stalled.

"Next round," she announced to Shadow.

"Watch yourself," he warned. "Those ships aren't as fast as the Peregrines, but they have them outclassed in firepower, durability, and maneuverability."

She didn't like the fact that he seemed to be lecturing her, but on the other hand that bit of news was very useful. The Peregrines could outrun even the _Cloud Runner_ if they used their afterburner, but they were more useful for hit-and-run attacks than for dogfighting. It sounded as though the Sparrowhawks would prove much more of a challenge. Kursed closed her eyes halfway and focused her attention on the incoming fighters. This was a technique that would allow her to determine the intent of her enemies, and would give her a split-second warning if they decided to take any hostile action; there was usually a short delay between thought and action, enough of one for her to react to the thought before the action began. Right now all six of the enemy pilots were focused on the shuttle, and were neglecting their aft scanners. She didn't intend to let them live to learn from their mistake.

Glowing plumes of exhaust erupted out of the launch ports on either side of three of the Sparrowhawks as their pilots opened fire on the shuttle. Kursed swore and tried to accelerate to catch up, but she knew she was too far behind to make any difference in the outcome. When the missiles were about ten seconds from impact, however, they abruptly wavered and veered crazily off course. Kursed was at a loss as to what had happened, but she felt a huge pulse of relief from Shadow, and a moment later, heard his voice over the comm channel; "Good, they got the lock jammer working."

"And what precisely does that do?" she inquired, curiosity getting the better of her.

"It automatically detects the signal of missiles homing in on its location and overloads their tracking sensors with a countersignal, essentially blinding the missile. It's still a very idiosyncratic device, and prone to failure, and they must have had trouble getting it to work at first. I wouldn't rely on it to save things in a pinch."

Four of the Sparrowhawks broke off their runs on the _Intruder_ to turn around and engage the defending pilots, while the other two continued on to attack the shuttle. No doubt the pilots of those four craft thought their opponents would take the proffered challenge and let their compatriots attack the shuttle unmolested. Kursed had no intention of playing their game, and, she suspected, neither did Shadow. "I'll keep these ones busy," she said to him, "you take care of the ones that are after your friends."

"Acknowledged," he replied tersely. "But I'll give these guys a bloody nose as I pass, as well." He held the triggers down on the minicannons and pulse lasers as he came into range, and kept them down as he closed the distance. The Sparrowhawks all scattered as the incandescent barrage swept across their location, and he didn't score any kills, but the volume of firepower he put out did a wonderful job of disrupting their unit cohesion and weakened the shields on three of the four enemy fighters. Shadow punched the throttle to full and barreled past the fighters, leaving them for Kursed to clean up as he raced towards the two that were harrying the _Infiltrator_.

The shuttle was almost to safety in the asteroid ring, but for every meter of distance left they would be harried by the two starfighters that chased them relentlessly. As Shadow watched, however, the quad turret on top of the shuttle's fuselage came alive, pelting the incoming fighters with bolts of hot light. Not expecting such a response, the Sparrowhawks were taken off-guard and scrambled to get out of the line of fire. Shadow grinned slightly as he saw the trail of laser beams from the quad gun chase the enemy fighters, guessing from the wild firing pattern that Zeke was at the controls for the gun, while Edgar piloted the shuttle. The raven shot like laser bolts were rationed, and was very precise with his aim, while the hulking wolf sprayed shots as though he were working a fire hose.

Despite his haphazard firing method, Zeke managed to land enough hits on each of the Sparrowhawks to significantly weaken their shields. He selected the one that had taken the most damage and opened up on it from range; the barrage of laser beans and energy pellets peppered across the fighter and shredded its rear half. The engines flared brightly and then exploded, taking the rest of the ship with it. The other pilot was cagier, and broke off its run on the shuttle to confront the greater threat. The _Infiltrator_ made good use of its break and completed its run to the asteroid ring, where it settled in among the various floating pieces of debris.

Shadow set up for a head-to-head pass against the enemy pilot, and opened fire as soon as he had a decent shot. The Sparrowhawk returned the exchange, launching off a missile in the process as well. Laser fire splashed across the Harpy's forward shields, and Shadow jerked the control stick to the right to avoid the missile. It shot past him then curved around to try and come back at him again. He waited until the last possible moment and then hit the lateral thrusters; the Harpy rolled sideways out of harm's way, and the missile shot past his port wing, nearly hitting the ship that had launched it. It dodged to avoid the incoming projectile, and in the process was forced to trim its speed, giving the black fox the perfect opportunity for a deflection shot. He pulled the triggers and poured fire into the ship at close range, overwhelming its shields and rendering it derelict. Shadow didn't waste any more time on an enemy that was out of the fight, so he banked back around to help Kursed finish off the rest of the Sparrowhawks.

* * *

Kursed didn't bother with evasive maneuvers as she charged towards the Sparrowhawks; she simply opened the throttle as far as it would go, and kept her finger on the firing button for the _Cloud Runner's_ twin laser cannons, pouring shot after shot into the enemy that Shadow had most weakened in his charge past their position. Some of her shots went wide, as the enemy attempted evasive maneuvers, but several of them struck home as she was able to anticipate most of his dodges and adjust her aim accordingly. None of the hits proved fatal, but they did a wonderful job of spooking the enemy pilot and making him veer off from his attack run.

The other three pilots opened fire at her, but she put the _Cloud Runner_ into a spin, and the pulse laser fire ricocheted off her starfighter, as the field the spin generated repelled laser beams. They were travelling too fast for the enemies to try for missile locks, but one of them took a crack at her with the minicannon in his fighter's nose. The energy pellets splashed across her ship, and were apparently different enough from laser beams that some of the damage soaked through, draining her shields a bit and rattling the fuselage. Then they were past, the Sparrowhawks looping around to try and get on her tail - the standard "kill position" where they could dispatch an enemy without risk of return fire. Kursed leveled out of her spin and put the fighter into a hard turn, cutting it as sharp as she dared to prevent them from getting on her tail.

The maneuver worked perfectly; the _Cloud Runner's_ G-diffuser kept the centripetal acceleration of the turn from affecting her, and she dropped in on the tail of one enemy. Kursed stayed in this position and opened fire on her enemy, scorching his shields with burst after burst of laser fire even as the other three fighters began to drop into her rear quarter. The enemy pilot attempted to evade her fire, but she was able to track each of his jukes and jinks as he made them, and kept her aim on target until her fire pierced his shields and chewed up the armor covering his engines. They flared brightly once, dimmed, and then exploded in a violent flash. Kursed rode through the fireball, hearing shrapnel ping off her canopy and hoping that none of the pieces were large enough to break the tough triple-paned glass.

The other three Sparrowhawks were hot on her tail, so she pulled backwards on the controls and did an overhead loop, designed to let an enemy overshoot her position and allow her to come down behind it. All three Sparrowhawks followed her through the maneuver, showing that none of them were novice pilots, but that wasn't the end of her evasion. She began charging up another homing beam as she thrust both control handles forward and brought the _Cloud Runner_ through a much tighter underhand loop, one that the Sparrowhawks were unable to follow her through completely. From the physical distress she sensed from two of the pilots, they were riding the very limit of their inertial compensator's ability to keep them conscious, and they were all wondering how their opponent was able to maintain control through such a headache maneuver. She didn't care much one way or the other regarding their discomfort; as a matter of fact, it would actually work to her advantage. She came up out of the second loop with her fighter's nose practically in the exhaust port of another one of the Sparrowhawks, and the sharp pinging tone of a homing lock sounding in her ears. She released the charge and followed it up with a volley of laser fire that riddled one side of the fighter with holes. She rolled away from the enemy, not wanting to be nearby when it went the way of its comrade.

That left two enemies remaining; unfortunately, these would be the two that were the savviest, and the hardest to kill. They split up their formation; forcing her to choose to go after one or the other and give the one she ignored a clean shot at her unprotected aft section. Kursed gritted her teeth in irritation at the dilemma, but didn't see any easy way to avoid it. She settled in on the enemy that was less damaged, under the theory that the other one would be unable to do as much damage to her as its more robust comrade. There was also a bit of psychology at work in her decision; if she could demonstrate overwhelming superiority by taking out the stronger enemy, the other one might simply flee and let the group escape the system.

The Sparrowhawk she had chosen as her target whipped around to set up for a head-to-head pass. Kursed accepted his challenge, and began charging up another homing beam to keep on hand if he gave her the opportunity to use it. The Sparrowhawk didn't fire at her, didn't even try for a weapons lock, but instead opened up the throttle on his craft as high as it would go, high enough that even with his inertial compensator the acceleration pressed him back into his pilot's chair. Kursed wondered what he could possibly be planning, until her control board shrieked with the tone of a lock warning – from the other Sparrowhawk! While she had been so focused on her chosen target, the other pilot had gotten a lock on her craft and launched a pair of missiles that were even now closing in on her. She growled in annoyance and rolled hard right, evading the warheads by only a second to spare. They shot past her position and began to curve back around, their onboard computers apparently good enough to track her fighter even despite the sensor jamming and stealth equipment she'd installed. She waited until the last possible moment again and then pulled a tight loop, making the arc a tighter one that the missiles, with their much greater speed, couldn't copy.

Kursed leveled out and found the weaker Sparrowhawk near her sights. She released the homing beam that she'd been holding for all this time, and watched it close in on its target and strike, battering down the shields and melting through to do a little damage to the fuselage as well. She finished the job with a flurry of laser fire that pierced into the main body of the craft and ignited its fuel cells. The Sparrowhawk ripped itself apart in a glorious, yet silent, explosion that scattered glittering pieces of metal across space. Kursed searched her scanners for the last Sparrowhawk, and saw that it was retreating, with slight damage. She wondered what had caused the damage until she saw the Harpy approaching on her scopes and heard Shadow's voice:

"Hey, I was just wondering if you could use a hand. Doesn't really look like it, though."

"Come on," she said, not really responding to his comment, "he's on the run, let's get him and then we can leave."

"I don't think he's _fleeing_," Shadow said thoughtfully, "looks more like he's simply falling back."

"Falling back to what?" she asked. They pursued the lone Sparrowhawk for a few seconds, and then Kursed's radar began registering a new, if somewhat intermittent, contact, and she swore. The third blip, she'd forgotten all about it! She looked through her canopy and saw a black silhouette, one that belonged to something far bigger than just another starfighter. The Sparrowhawk fled at full throttle towards the mystery ship, and it was joined by the three Peregrines that had survived her initial attack. She had just realized that she was looking at a Kewan capital ship, when Shadow shouted; "Scatter!" and they both broke hard away from their previous vectors. It was just in time, as volleys of laser fire began pulsing off the bigger vessel, chasing after the two starfighters as they wove and dove in their attempts to keep it from pinning them in place with a searing salvo.

"And just what is _that_?" Kursed demanded.

"A patrol corvette," Shadow answered grimly. "Not a very big ship, but one that's designed to take on whole _squadrons_ of starfighters and win. It has eight pulse laser batteries scattered across its surface, positioned so that a target would always be in sight of at least four of them at any given time; and it also has an energy cannon that makes the one on the Harpy look like a water pistol in comparison."

"Your friends won't stand a chance against that," she said.

"Yeah, tell me about it," he answered grimly. "Back to the asteroid ring, on the double!"

The two starfighters raced towards the shelter of the asteroids, the corvette close behind them. It had hung back to see if its allied fighters would be able to take care of the escapees on their own, but when they had failed to do so, the bigger ship had come in to play directly. It had recovered the three Peregrines as they had fled from Kursed's onslaught, and now those fighters joined the surviving Sparrowhawk in escorting the corvette, to provide an extra layer of protection for the bigger ship.

"How come a ship that size carries fighters?" Kursed asked.

"Standard military procedure," Shadow answered. "Any ship big enough to hold them comes equipped with landing bays for starfighters. They provide a wonderful deterrent to boarders and bombers. A ship that size can only hold four fighters comfortably - six if space isn't an issue - but the point is that practically _every_ capital ship in use here can carry starfighters."

They were coming up on the safe zone, but the corvette was close behind them. Its top speed was a bit less than the Harpy's usual speed, but it hadn't surrendered much distance in the meantime. Shadow hailed the _Infiltrator_ as soon as he saw it and said, "Guys, we're in big trouble."

"We can see that," Edgar said a little dryly on the other end of the comm. The Harpy and the _Cloud Runner_ dove into the asteroids for cover, making sure they were in deep enough that the corvette wasn't able to get a lucky shot in and hit them anyway. The _Infiltrator_ joined them, all three ships drifting together among the crumbled remains of what might have been the gas giant's moons, ages ago.

"Any chance you could outrun them?" Kursed asked. "Or make a run through the asteroids while they have to go around?"

"Doesn't work that way," Ed replied. "They can send those fighters to head us off, and this shuttle isn't so agile that we could outrun or outmaneuver the corvette. But, that isn't the biggest problem we have right now."

"Oh? What is the biggest problem, then?" Shadow asked.

"That last fighter that was chasing us got a few lucky hits on the shuttle," Michael's voice came over the comm channel. "There aren't any cabin breaches, but… one shot seriously damaged the Mobius generator. Simply put, we're stuck here until I can get it repaired."

"Can you even do that? Those things are incredibly complex," Shadow said.

"I could do it, but it would take several days, and this shuttle doesn't have the amenities for us to last that long. We'd have to land somewhere, but the corvette is blocking our exit." Michael took a deep breath then concluded, "Unless we can take that ship out of the picture, we're stuck here."

* * *

_Author's Notes: Wow, the longest chapter in this story yet, and my first dogfight scene. Please tell me how I did! _

_The next chapter will start with how everyone gets out of the current predicament, and then will expound upon some character backgrounds. _


	9. Desperate Measures

**Chapter 8: Desperate Measures**

Michael's words hung in the silence that filled all three ships, somehow louder than any amount of shouting could ever be. Kursed looked through her canopy, past the slew of rocks floating in her vision, out towards where she knew the _Intruder_ was lurking. Attacking a much larger ship, that was designed to destroy craft like the ones she and Omega Squad operated, seemed borderline suicidal. And yet, they had to succeed, or all of them would die. A small part of her whispered that there was no profit in staying here, that it was time to cut her losses and leave, but the rest of her shouted that she couldn't abandon these people.

"There has to be _some_ way we could slip by," Amber said into the silence. Her voice was a little tinny, probably because she was a fair distance away from the comm's microphone.

"Not very likely," Shadow said over the comm channel. "Patrol corvettes have some very elaborate sensor systems, and in the shape the _Infiltrator_ is in, we'd never be able to sneak it past them. Besides which, they also have a few fighters along to help cover possible exit routes."

"What about taking it out, like Michael said?" Kursed asked him. "If the shields on that ship are like the one on those starfighters, then it shouldn't take much time to cut through them."

"The shields on those starfighters were so weak, comparatively speaking, because they can't produce the power necessary to run them at full strength," Michael's voice came from the comm. "Capital ships, on the other hand, carry a completely different type of generator, and have more than one power plant on board. The shielding in even a small ship like that is much too strong for the weapons we have with us."

What about the Harpy?" Kursed asked. "You did say that it was designed to take on capital ships."

"Yeah, that I did," Shadow agreed. "Problem is, I don't have any torpedoes, or even missiles; and Harpies were supposed to be used in squadrons when engaging something this size. We have just this one, so unless you've got something incredibly powerful hidden on board _your_ starfighter, I think we're stuck."

"I just might," she said, almost more to herself than to anyone else. Kursed tapped a few buttons on the flight console and brought up an ordnance report. If she remembered correctly… yes, there was a Nova Bomb left in the ordinance bay. Over the course of her career, she had modified the _Cloud Runner_ to carry and utilize a variety of weapons, ranging from missiles to mines to everything else that could be launched through the port, yet she had never used the one Nova Bomb that it carried. She had almost forgotten about it, intending to save it as for emergencies only, a last-ditch surprise if she ran into a more powerful opponent, yet somehow, it had never been needed…until, now that was. "Yes, I think I have what you need," Kursed said simply. "I just need to get in close to that corvette, and this little device should take care of it."

"Okay, I'll cover you," Shadow said. "Get ready to-"

"Wait, hold it," she interrupted. There were enemies approaching… "I think they're sending the surviving starfighters in to try and flush us out."

"I can't find them," he said a little worriedly. "Where's their attack vector?"

"They aren't attacking just yet," she said. "They're trying to sneak in close, using the asteroids for cover before they launch an attack."

"Oh, _really_?" he said, and the tone of his voice told her that he had something very nasty in mind for their attackers. "I don't suppose you could tell me which direction they would be coming from, and how close they are?"

"I could," she said, wondering what exactly he had in mind, but then the _Cloud Runner_'s sensors detected a massive surge of energy coming from the Harpy's bow. She at first thought that using the energy canon would be phenomenal overkill unless he managed to hit all four surviving fighters at once, and they seemed too savvy to allow him that sort of easy shot. Then she realized what his target actually was, and almost laughed at the audacity of his plan.

"There," she told him, using a short burst of laser fire to illuminate the target she was referring to. "They're coming up from behind that asteroid there."

"Thanks," he answered. His next question was addressed to the _Infiltrator_: "How are guys doing over there?"

"We can fly and fight," Michael's voice answered back, "we just can't go faster than light." A chorus of snickers echoed over the comm at his inadvertent rhyme, and even drew a slight snort of amusement from the bounty hunter. "If you have a plan in mind, could you share it with us?"

"Our blue-furred ally thinks she has a way to neutralize that corvette," Shadow said. "We'll need to eliminate the fighters currently coming in after us, and then after we take the big ship out of the equation, we can head for a safe port and make repairs, then continue back to Kew like we originally planned."

"Here they come," Kursed interjected over the channel. The enemy starfighters had gotten close to the back of a particularly large asteroid, and were hugging the surface as they swung around, keeping to cover until the last possible moment to maximize the value of surprise. They apparently didn't know that at least one of their quarries was telepathic, and had been aware of their approach from the beginning.

"Close your eyes," Shadow told her, bare seconds before the enemy fighters began to curve around the asteroid. As soon as he saw them, he shouted, "Surprise!" and tightened his finger on the trigger. Kursed had barely closed her eyes when a blinding spear of bright white light erupted from the nose of the Harpy, aimed not at any of the fighters themselves, but rather at the asteroid they had been using for cover. Even through her eyelids, the polarized lenses on her helmet's visor, and the blast tinting on the canopy, the light was brilliant enough that it almost hurt to look at.

'That energy cannon packs quite a punch,' she thought, for when the beam lanced into the surface of the asteroid, the whole thing exploded into a thousand high-velocity shards of rock; quite possibly the biggest flak shell in all of known history. The results were all they could have hoped for, though, as the flying stone fragments pelted the enemy fighters mercilessly; destroying one Peregrine in a bright, actinic flash, crippling another one and draining the shields on the last one and the lone Sparrowhawk almost to zero. Seeing the opportunity, Kursed goosed the _Cloud Runner_'s throttle up to full and pounced on the momentarily stunned spacecraft. She left the crippled Peregrine alone, since it represented no threat to them, but the other two surviving fighters weren't so lucky. Shadow got off a long-range salvo that took out the last Peregrine, while she raked the Sparrowhawk with laser fire from stem to stern. The broad-winged starfighter succumbed to the attack in a spectacular explosion, and with that, she was clear to make an attack run on the corvette.

"You wait here," she said. "I don't think that flying tub of yours can dodge laser beams, and this ship still has a few tricks I haven't shown you yet." She took off at full speed, arrowing out of the asteroid field and towards the corvette even as she heard him grumble, "Flying tub, indeed". He did realize that the Harpy didn't have nearly enough maneuverability to avoid all the laser blasts, though, and it wasn't tough enough to be able to withstand a lot of hits, either.

As soon as the _Cloud Runner _left the shelter of the asteroid rings, the corvette locked on and began throwing out wave after wave of pulse laser fire in an attempt to hit the nimbly dodging starfighter. Kursed wove and dodged, avoiding the murderous barrages as much as she was able; but then the gunners tried a new tactic, firing all the guns that had her in view at once, trying to create a wall of laser fire that she couldn't avoid. She stomped on the left rudder pedal and pulled down hard on the control sticks, putting her fighter into a spin. She heard the shrill 'pings' as the beams ricocheted off the fuselage, as well as the shouts of amazement from over the comm channel at the sight of the _Cloud Runner_ shrugging off the laser fire like a mere rain shower. The roll bought her the time she needed to close the distance to where she could get a good lock on the corvette. As soon as she heard the computer give the tone of a solid homing lock, she thumbed the trigger that launched her sole Nova Bomb then did a hard bootlegger's turn and rocketed away from the corvette. She had no desire to be anywhere nearby when the high-explosive projectile went off.

An eye-searing sphere of brilliant light erupted behind her, engulfing the corvette in the fury of a miniature supernova. Kursed waited until the glare from the explosion subsided, and then checked her rear-view screen – to see the corvette still hanging there in space, completely intact. "Oh, come _on_," she groaned. "Just how tough _are_ those things?"

"Whoa, did you guys see that!?" Michael's voice interjected over the speaker. "She took its shields down in just one hit!" Kursed blinked in mild surprise at the human's exuberance, but then she took a second, closer look at the corvette using her sensors. It was still in one piece, to be sure, but the power readings from it had dropped precipitously, with both the shields and the weapons systems no longer reading as active. In addition, it was stopped dead in space, and was locked in a slow spin to port, which it seemed unable to counter.

"Now I'm _really_ curious as to what that was," Shadow's voice came over the comm.

"Just a little something I've been saving for emergencies," she replied coolly, still a little taken aback that the corvette as still intact. "It's called a Nova Bomb, but that was my only one."

"We appreciate the sacrifice," he said. "We'll find some way to make it up to you." He took a closer look at the disabled corvette, and something caught his eye. "Hey, Ed," he called to the raven, "inch up here a bit and tell me if you see what I see."

"If you think you see that the hangar bay doors are stuck open," Edgar answered, "then I'm seeing the same thing you are. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Boarding action," Shadow stated. The _Infiltrator_ was already coming about, moving to line itself up with one of the open hangar bays. There was one bay on each side of the corvette, each large enough to accommodate two large or three smaller starfighters. The _Infiltrator_ would fill up one all by itself, and between the two of them the Harpy and the _Cloud Runner_ would almost fill the other. Since presumably there were no more enemy starfighters left intact and active, the hangars should be wide open and easy landing sites. Whether the enemy would put up a lot of resistance further in, however, was another matter entirely. The shuttle burned space in its efforts to make it to the starboard hangar before it could be denied, so Shadow pointed the Harpy's nose towards the other one. As they raced to get to the openings left to them, he couldn't help but notice that Kursed paralleled him in her starfighter, angling to come in just behind him as they approached their destination.

The _Infiltrator_ slid smoothly through the atmosphere containment field and into the starboard hangar. As soon as the shuttle had come to a complete stop, the members of Omega Squad that were on board opened the hatch and disembarked as rapidly as they could. Sondra's first action was to find a computer terminal and patch in, to make sure that the crew of the ship couldn't switch the atmo-con field _off_ and vent the group into outer space. As it turned out, she needn't have bothered; the ship's whole mainframe had crashed due to the power surge from the shields overloading all at once, and asides from emergency backups pretty much all of the corvette's systems were offline. This included the control interfaces that would normally allow the crew to counter boarders. Digging a little further for confirmation, the raccoon discovered a somewhat more alarming bit of information.

"Hey, it looks like the crew is trying to restart the ship's computer from the bridge," she reported. We need to get up there and secure it fast, or they'll have this thing back up and running in a short while." Edgar and Zeke weighed the risk of taking the rest of the group with them versus the risk of leaving them behind, and decided that it would be best if they kept everyone with them. The shuttle, if it came to that was expendable; the people were not, and Zeke had a feeling that very bad things would happen if anyone let Amber come to harm. They filed out of the hangar bay and into the corridor; Edgar and Zeke being careful to keep the less combat-affluent members of the group between them and out of harm's way as much as possible. Together, the group moved through the corridors, headed towards the bridge in the hope of securing it before the surviving crew could bring the main systems back online.

* * *

Shadow and Kursed slide their starfighters into the port side hangar bay, making sure the area was clear of enemy soldiers before opening their canopies and jumping out to continue further on foot. The bounty hunter drew her staff and extended it to its combat length, while the black fox drew a knife from the sheath on his right forearm and moved cautiously to the exit door at the back of the relatively cavernous space. He was about to put an ear to the door to listen for enemy footsteps or chatter, but the blue vixen told him, "The hall is clear, I don't sense any presences on the other side of the doorway."

"Oh really?" he inquired. "That's quite a handy ability you have there."

"It gives me a leg up on the opposition," she said breezily.

"Can you get a sense of the general mindset of the crew?" he asked her. "What they're doing, if they've enacted counter-boarding measures, that sort of thing?"

"Already checked," she answered. "At least half of the crew was killed when the Nova Bomb went off, and most of the rest are busy trying to get the ship back online. They are concentrated in Engineering and the bridge, although there are a few groups patrolling the halls and on the lookout for boarders."

Shadow pulled out his comlink and signaled the rest of his group. "Hey guys, where are you headed?"

There was a brief pause before Edgar's voice crackled over the comm link. "We're headed up to the bridge," the raven replied. "Sondra hacked into one of the computer terminals and found that the crews are trying to do a system restart. We're trying to get there before they can finish."

Sondra's voice same over the comm next. "There's another group down in Engineering that are working on restarting the engines. Getting control of the bridge won't mean anything if that group is there; they can just lock us out and take control. Can you two get down there and stop them?"

"Can do," Shadow said. "Anything else before we go?"

There was a brief rustle as the comm was passed to another person, and then Zeke's voice sounded from the speaker. "Dude, your sister's a little creepy."

"Zeke!" the fox answered with exaggerated affront in his voice. "How can you possible say that about such a sweet and innocent girl?"

"She _knows_ things," the wolf answered. "We've dodged several counter-boarding patrols already because she warned us of their approach. It's just eerie, is what I'm saying."

"She knows what she's doing, don't question it," the black fox replied. "Might I suggest we maintain comm silence unless reporting major resistance or a successful mission?"

"Okay then, buddy," was the reply. "Over and out." Shadow replaced the comm link on its clip by his shoulder and turned to his companion. "Sounds like we need to go to engineering."

"'We?'" the vixen asked with an arch tone in her voice.

"Well, unless you want to stay here and guard the fighters, or take off and go…wherever you stay between hunts," he replied.

"Bor-ing," she yawned. "Let's get to Engineering." She heard him snicker as she picked up her staff and started down the corridor, all senses on alert for any sign of the crew of the ship. He followed close behind her, one knife held ready in his right hand while the other hand was left free. They had gone through only two corridors when Kursed felt the approach of a small group of security forces, a squad of three men. She motioned to him that there were enemies incoming, and the two of them ducked to cover; she behind a bulkhead and he jumping up to brace himself just beneath the ceiling over the door. As she watched, he carefully sheathed the knife to keep his hands free, and then the two of them waited for the patrol to come their way.

They didn't have to wait long. After only a minute or so, the sound of footsteps came echoing down the corridor and a trio of light-armored men trotted around the corner. Shadow waited until the last of them had gone under him then dropped down behind the last one and put him in a choke hold. He held the man there long enough to reach around and get a firm hold on the human's head, and the twisted it sharply to one side. His neck snapped with an audible 'crack', and Shadow slung the body into the rest of the group. The other two went down in a tangle of arms and legs, allowing him and Kursed the opportunity to finish them off before they could report the disturbance. Kursed slammed the end of her staff down on the skull of one while Shadow delivered a lightning-fast strike to the base of the neck of the last one, and that was that.

"Why didn't you just shoot them?" Kursed asked after they had secured the immediate area.

"I'll give you two answers for the price of one," he replied. "First, a gunshot could alert other groups to our whereabouts. Many ships this size come with internal sensors that report any firearm discharge. I don't know if this one has those, or if they're still working, but until we know for sure there's no point in taking chances."

"I see," she mused. "And the other reason?"

"It makes cleanup easier later," was the pragmatic answer. He stacked the bodies in a heap by the wall and continued on towards Engineering. Kursed followed after a moment's hesitation. For a short time, right before he had sprung his ambush, his mental sense had changed completely, becoming icy cold, almost mechanical in its precision and calculation. It had changed back to what she assumed was his normal state shortly after the last soldier had been killed, but while it had been in effect, it had sent an unpleasant shiver down her spine.

They continued through the corridors of the ship with no further incident until they reached the door that led to Engineering. The door itself was shut, as a precaution against the possibility of a hull breach, but it was not sealed. If it were, nothing short of high explosives would be able to open the door, which would have the added side effect of killing anyone in the hall and likely ruining a lot of the equipment inside. Fortunately it was only a matter of Shadow applying proper leverage to the door once Kursed had determined there was no one on the other side waiting to shoot him once the door was open.

The two of them slipped into the area, which was currently lit only in the dim red glow of emergency lighting. Shadow's enhanced vision wasn't bothered by the low light, and Kursed had her telepathy, which was in some regards even better. They could both hear the sounds of voices as the crew worked to get the systems back online, and judging from the frustration in their tone and their mental sense, they were not having a lot of luck in that regard. Of course, they would soon have much more pressing matters on their hands.

Shadow eased his head around the corner and took a peek at the opposition. There were a total of eight humans present in the room, all gathered near the equipment at the far end of Engineering. Three of them wore the coveralls of technicians, and were busy trying to reinitialize locked-up systems and muttering imprecations at the machinery, the guards, and the universe in general. The other five were clad in the same lightweight armor vests as the three that the intruders had already dispatched, and held laser pistols at the ready, alert for any sign of trouble.

Shadow pulled his head back and reported what he had seen. "There are five guards and three technicians. The guards are probably the most immediate threat, but if the techs decide to try anything funny, they may actually be the bigger danger."

"I assume you have something in mind to cover that problem?" Kursed asked.

"Sort of," he replied. He handed her one of the captured pistols and elaborated. "These all have stun settings on them. The lethal beams aren't powerful enough to breach the hull down here, but a stray bolt could damage vital equipment if it misses its target. The plan is to stun the techs as quick as we can, and then take out the guards afterwards. If the techs are willing to help us get the ship back in working order, so much the better, but if they try to sabotage the ship, then they'll have to be confined." He started checking out the two he'd kept for himself, but then looked back up at her and said, "The stun setting also won't trigger that alarm I mentioned earlier."

Kursed check the selection switch on the pistol and flipped it over to 'stun'. She then closed her eyes and focused, seeking out the presences of the eight humans in the room and fixing their locations firmly in her mind. Once she was certain she knew precisely where each of them was located, she opened her eyes and saw Shadow doing the same thing she had done, only visually. He held a pistol in each hand, but something told her he'd be able to control the weapons just fine. She looked at him and he nodded back at her unspoken question, and then the two of them popped up from their hiding place and opened up on the humans on the other side of the room.

The three technicians took multiple hits and went down without even a sound. However, their fall alerted the five who were standing guard, and they took cover and returned fire with their sidearms. Laser fire splashed against the back wall and the machinery that the two foxes had taken cover behind. The humans could fire without fear of damaging anything important, since their sidearms would not breach the walls and there was nothing vital near their targets. The same could not be said of Shadow and Kursed, who had to use stun beams so a stray shot didn't damage important equipment. The end result was that they were at a severe disadvantage in a firefight, since the stun beams lacked the ranged power necessary to pierce the armor the soldiers were wearing.

Kursed saw that their current strategy wasn't working, so she put away the pistol and drew her staff, leveling at the floor near the guards and squeezing off several shots from the Fire Blaster. The energy bolts blasted the flooring apart and forced the men to duck back behind cover, allowing Shadow the opportunity to vault over the machinery and rush them. He slammed the butt of the pistol in his left hand across the temple of the first guard he encountered, laying the human out cold on the floor. The next guard was within easy reach, so he snaked an arm around the man's neck and spun him around. This put him between the fox and the remaining humans, allowing him to use the guard's armored body as a shield while he hosed the survivors with stun beams. After they were down, he stunned the guard he was holding, and then proceeded to restrain all the survivors for when they awoke.

He heard Kursed's footsteps as the bounty hunter approached, and asked her, "Is that everyone here?"

"This section is secure," she answered, "but the bridge still needs to be taken."

Shadow pulled out his comm link again and called the rest of his team. "Hey guys, we think we have Engineering under control, how are you doing?"

There was a brief pause before a female voice answered, "We just made it to the bridge."

"Eilarra?" he inquired.

"Yes," was the reply. "Zeke and Edgar are taking point right now, in case we meet some unexpected enemies. We ran into several patrols and had to fight our way through, which is why we're so late getting here."

There was a brief rustle as the ocelot passed the comlink over to someone else, and then Sondra's voice sounded from the speaker. "Do you guys think you could hold down the fort there until we get the bridge secure?"

"Not a problem," he replied. "Do you think you'll be all right with who you have up there already?"

"Eilarra and I may not be expert soldiers like you boys, but we can handle ourselves in a fight," was the raccoon's dry reply. "And with your sister keeping a watch for any more guard patrols, we should be just fine."

"Okay then," Shadow said. "Good luck, and don't get killed."

* * *

"Heh, I make my own luck," Sondra said as she closed down the comm. She turned and looked over at Zeke, who was setting explosive charges over the door in case they had to blast it open. These explosives were focused so that they would cut through the metal, but would not send a large shockwave much past the initial point of detonation. The rest of Omega Squad was gathered around the corner, just in case things got nasty when the door went down. They were actually trying to hack the doors open first, but since most of the higher-level computer systems were down, Sondra wasn't having much success in that endeavor.

"You know, the longer we linger here, the more likely we are to be found by another patrol," Edgar said a little testily.

"I know, I know," Sondra grumbled. "But I can't hack a computer that isn't even on. Looks like we need to go with Plan B."

"What if that doesn't work?" Amber asked worriedly.

"That's the nice thing about the alphabet," Zeke told her. "Plenty of fallback options." She gave him a blank look for a moment, and then let out a short chuckle at his joke. The wolf actually felt a little nervous in her presence; she'd exhibited many of the same abilities as the bounty hunter Kursed. Although the scarlet vixen seemed nice enough, he was still uncomfortable with the thought of someone who could read minds at will. Compounding the difficulty of the matter was the fact that he also felt attracted to her, to some degree - and leaving aside the whole issue of sorting out romantic feelings for someone who could tell what you were thinking, there was the not-so-minor issue of how her brother would react if he knew.

The wolf decided to focus on the more immediate concern at hand to shut out these worrisome thoughts that he really couldn't do anything about at the moment. He double checked the placement of the charges to make sure that they would do their job properly, and then motioned everyone to get back. When they were all clear, he raised the remote detonator, shouted "Fire in the hole!" and hit the trigger button. A bright stroboscopic flash light the room for a split-second, and an eardrum-rattling 'bang' echoed through the corridor. Fortunately, everyone in the hall had been given ample warning and had covered their ears, but most of those on the bridge weren't so lucky. The explosion had an effect similar to that of a flash grenade, simultaneously blinding and deafening most of the occupants of the room and leaving those who weren't completely incapacitated at a serious disadvantage when the raven and the wolf charged in.

Ed and Zeke had exchanged their usual weaponry for stun pistols and laser carbines; weapons that were better suited for the tight corridors and delicate surroundings on board a spaceship than sniper rifles and plasma cannons. Of the fourteen or so people on the bridge, only four were able to fight. Two of them went down to stun blasts; one threw his hands in the air and surrendered; one had the bad judgment of pulling a concealed weapon and received a quick burst of carbine from Edgar to his chest. The energy bolts burned through his ship's jumpsuit and threw him to the floor, fatally wounded. Some of the stunned crew began to stir, and Zeke bellowed into the air, "Surrender and you will not be harmed! Give us trouble and you will!"

Most of the bridge crew put their hands in the air and surrendered without a fight. A couple of them looked like they thought about being heroes, but a warning look from the raven was sufficient to quash any such foolish notions before anyone got hurt. Once they were certain that there would be no more shooting, Ed motioned to the other members of the group to come on in then pulled out his comlink and called Shadow. "Hey, buddy, I think we got everything under control now. All we need to do is get the systems back online, and we'll be all good to go in a matter of hours."

"E-xcelent," was the reply. "How long do you think that will take?"

"Sondra's up here now, checking out the computer systems," the wolf replied. "Michael's heading down to Engineering to fix any problems on that end. We won't really know for sure until we can get the power back on." Zeke hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "Would you mind if Amber stayed up here a little longer? We have some prisoners that may or may not cooperate, and it would be good to have someone who would be able to tell if they're pretending to go along while secretly plotting sabotage."

"Is she okay with that?" her brother asked.

There was a short pause, and then Amber's voice spoke from the comlink's microphone. "Yes, I can do that. I don't think any of them will make trouble, but best to keep an eye out, right?" She paused for a moment then asked, "Arlen, what's happened to you? You're half a stranger to me now, what changed?"

The black fox felt his throat tighten up for a moment at her question. So many things had happened to him since he last saw her, but he was unwilling to tell her everything right now, especially since the explanation touched on his greatest hurt and deepest regret. "So many things…" he said sadly. "I'll tell you everything in time," he said, "but right now isn't the best time."

"Okay, but I'll hold you to that promise," Amber said. "I love you, brother."

"I love you too, little sis," he replied, and with that exchange they closed the channel. Shadow looked to the side to see Kursed staring at him intently, but when she saw him return her gaze, she looked away without saying a word. Any comment he might have made, though, was forestalled by Michael's arrival.

The human stopped a bit short upon seeing the vast network of machinery laid out before him, but then rolled up the sleeves of his jumpsuit and said, "All right then, let's get down to business." He plunged into the work before him with zeal, aided somewhat reluctantly by the three technicians who had been working on this earlier. With Shadow and Kursed there, none of them were willing to try anything underhanded, and the prospect of going back to civilization, even as prisoners held more appeal to them than continuing to float dead in space in a crippled ship.

* * *

In the end it took several hours to get the ship's power grid back into some semblance of order. The massive feedback surge caused by the Nova Bomb overloading the shields had damaged several primary relays throughout the ship, necessitating bypasses in five areas. After that was accomplished however, the rest of the work went along smoothly, and there was little further need for the assistance of the prisoners. Shadow escorted them to the brig, and made sure that conditions were not too crowded. Although the black fox could be utterly ruthless in combat, when dealing with prisoners the Conventions of War were in the forefront of his mind. As long as the prisoners didn't make trouble, they would be treated well until they could be turned over to the proper authorities. Only if they presented a direct threat to himself or any of his friends would he use lethal force to subdue them.

Shadow was on his way back after sorting out the prisoners when his comlink beeped to alert him of an incoming call. He plucked it off its clip and said, "Go ahead."

"It's Sondra," the raccoon's voice came from the speaker. "We've almost got the ship's main computer back on, and then we'll be able to get back to Kewana City."

"Very good," he affirmed. "No, wait a second – did you heck to make sure there were no sleeper programs intended to, oh, trigger the self-destruct or something should control of the ship be lost?"

"The computer was down when we took over the ship, so I assumed…" Sondra stopped abruptly and was quiet for a moment before she said, "I'll go double-check the programming one more time, sir." She closed the channel and he chuckled a bit at the exchange.

"What's so funny?" Kursed asked from behind him. He turned to see her walking down the corridor, once again wearing her white flight jacket over the black bandeau top that seemed to be her clothing of choice when she was on the hunt.

"There's an admonition here to never assume; do you know why?" His eyes glinted with a hint of mischief.

She tried to pull the answer from his thoughts, but apparently he was very good at hiding them, because she couldn't get it. "No, why?" she asked in resignation.

"It's very simple," he told her. "When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of both U and ME." It took her a second to parse through that statement, but when she finally got it she let out a short snort at his pun. He continued walking for a brief second, and then asked her, "Do you know where Amber is?"

"She's down in the crew quarters area, getting a long-overdue shower," the vixen replied. When she didn't leave immediately, he suspected there was another question she wanted to ask.

"Something on your mind?" he inquired. He turned around with a slightly knowing look in his eye, and she knew there was no point in pretending indifference any longer.

"How did she get here?" the azure vixen asked. "I recognize the tattoo on her arm; it's the crest of one of the plains clans from my homeworld. But this area of space is so far away, how did she get all the way over here?"

Shadow began walking towards the crew area, his mind more on the question she had just asked than on where he was going. He subconsciously navigated the hallway as he began to speak; "My parents found her in a sort of shuttle that was drifting through space. The ship had been subjected to an intense burst of radiation beforehand; all that was left of the occupants was charred remains. The most those present could determine was that the crew was all vulpine. The systems were all scrambled beyond belief, and any exterior marking had been seared off before they got there. My father was the captain of the Marine contingent stationed aboard the patrol cruiser, and he was the one who first found a sealed trunk that looked to be shielded against that sort of thing. When they finally opened it up, there she was, lying there asleep with an oxygen mask fitted over her face."

Kursed looked up at him as realization dawned in her mind. "There was a deep-space exploratory vessel that was lost, presumably with all hands aboard, back when I was just a child. This must have been that craft."

"So you two _do_ hail from the same place?" Shadow asked, although it was more confirmation than inquiry. "Is telepathy a common talent where you come from?"

"To one degree or another," she replied. "Don't change the subject, though; what happened after they found her?"

"She was taken to an orphanage," he said. "Mom and dad wanted to adopt her right then and there, but there's a procedure that has to be followed for that, so they tried to hurry that process along as much as possible." He sighed and looked down at the floor in remembrance. "On this world, families are often split apart due to civil unrest. Parents lose children; children lose their parents, so adoption is fairly common here. Mom was seriously injured only a few years after I was born, in such a manner that she was unable to safely bear any more children. They were eager to adopt Amber, and I wanted a sibling so badly… It wasn't until later that we found out she had extrasensory abilities. We thought it best to keep that a secret, since people tend to harbor a great deal of mistrust towards telepaths here." He looked over his shoulder at her and grinned. "Although, I suspect you already know that."

"I'm not in the habit of revealing that aspect of myself anyway," Kursed said. "It makes for a very big advantage when chasing bounties." The vixen hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "Does she remember anything of her life before your parents found her?"

"No, I don't," Amber said from behind them. The two foxes turned to see her standing behind them, wearing a shipboard coverall, her hair still damp from her shower.

Shadow grinned as he saw her and asked, "Feeling better?"

"Very much so, thank you" she answered, giving him a hug in the process. He returned it with equal feeling, the tenderness he exhibited now seeming completely at odds with the cold ruthlessness he had shown when in combat. Amber looked at Kursed, her gaze drawing the attention of the older vixen. "I was only about four or five when I first came here. The family I had here is the only family I've really known." Disappointment was evident in Kursed's expression, and the other vixen asked, "What's wrong?"

"I was hoping you might have some memory of our homeworld," she said quietly. "Memories are all that is left of it, now. I have nothing else, no family, no friends any more, nothing I can call my own." She started to head back to the quarters area, but the sound of Shadow's voice stopped her.

"I disagree," he said softly. "While it would probably be presumptuous of me to say we're _friends_, we do work well enough together, and can get along reasonably well. More importantly, you helped me find a missing member of my family, and you've probably saved the lives of everyone here at least once. That was a seriously gutsy move you pulled, doing that bombing run on the corvette, and there was no call for you to stick your neck out like that." He took a breath, and then concluded, "I think what I'm trying to say is, as far as I'm concerned, you're practically one of us, now."

That simple phrase made her whip around and stare at him in shock. _One of us_. His words echoed around in her mind, stirring emotions that she had thought long dead. She had spent four years of her life utterly alone, unwilling to trust anyone for fear of being hurt like she had been before. Her social antipathy had only been strengthened by the people she had dealt with in her new chosen lie of work; most of the people who favored the circles she ran in recently were lowlifes and street thugs, hardly the sorts to inspire trust and warm feelings. She hadn't liked it, but over time she had gotten used to it, and that isolation had caused her heart to grow colder and colder as time went by. Those three words, however, cut through a lot of the ice that had built up around her heart, and made her realize just how much she missed the company of others she could trust.

She opened her mouth to reply to that statement, but just before she said something, Shadow's comlink beeped a page. He gritted his teeth in annoyance at the interruption, but pulled the device off its clip and answered it. "Yeah, go ahead."

"It's Sondra," the raccoon announced herself. "I think we've got everything fixed up, all we need to do is turn the main system back on and we'll be on our way home again. But, we need you up on the bridge, since you're probably the one who best knows how to work this thing."

"All right, I'll be there in just a moment," he replied. He closed the channel and turned to the vixens. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"We can finish this conversation another time," Kursed told him. He nodded and turned to head to the bridge, when she called out, "Wait a moment." He turned and raised an eyebrow in inquiry, and she said a little hesitantly, "I just wanted to say…thank you, for your words earlier."

He was a little surprised at her sudden show of gratitude, but he offered her a rare smile in return and said, "You're welcome." He turned back and entered the elevator that brought him up to the bridge, and the two vixens were left alone together. Amber was quiet for a long time, staring at the place where her brother had been, lost in thought.

Kursed had fallen out of practice at making small talk, so she was quiet for a long time, as well. Finally, when the silence became too much, she said the first thing that came to mind; "He's pretty tall for a fox."

"Well, actually, he's one-quarter wolf, on Mom's side," Amber said. "That's why he's a bit bigger than the average fox."

"Really?" Kursed was quiet again for a second, but her curiosity, which had little indulgence recently, was piqued. "So, your…adopted parents, what where they like?"

Amber smiled, but it was the smile of a pleasant memory tinged with sorrow. "Their names were Samuel and Cassandra, and they were all anyone could ever hope for parents to be: caring, loving, kind, generous, always supportive but not overindulgent. They always pushed us to do our best, but also let us know that they loved us no matter what."

"I see," Kursed said. There was no mistaking Amber's use of the past tense, nor the bittersweet nature of the memories that she was sharing. "What happened to them?"

"I…I don't really know," the younger vixen confessed. "There was some sort of accident on their ship; the reactor had a containment breach, even though it was supposed to have been serviced just before then. Somehow it overloaded, and everyone on board was killed. I was only ten when it happened, and Arlen was just a few weeks away from graduating from flight school when we got the message. He took an honorable discharge from the military so he could stay home and take care of me in our parents' absence." Amber looked up at the other vixen and smiled halfheartedly. "I'm sorry; this must be a lot to dump in the lap of a relative stranger."

"It's not a big deal," Kursed answered. Truthfully, she was more than a little surprised that Amber was as well-adjusted as she was, considering she had lost two sets of parents in the first ten years of her life. "If you don't mind, I think I'll find a bunk and catch up on some sleep."

"Good idea," Amber said. "I'm feeling a little tired, myself." The two of them made their way into the crew quarters, most of which were small rooms with a bunk at one end and a closet for personal belongings at the other. Judging from the lack of items, Kursed assumed that her chosen room had not been in use before she claimed it. There wasn't anything on board the _Cloud Runner_ that she needed at the moment, so she simply lay back on the bed and, for the first time in a long time, started thinking about her future in a context other than where she would find her next bounty.

Normally, when she had either exhausted her prospects in a given region or had made too many enemies to make staying there safe, she had moved to a different area of space. For the first time in a long time, however, she was contemplating settling own in this area. Never before had she encountered another Cerinian survivor, and even if Amber had no recollection of her life before she was found here, it was a small piece of the home that had been wrested away from her. In addition, there was something about Shadow that held her attention. It was a far cry to say she was "in love" with him – as a matter of fact she had given up on love, due to her previous disappointments in that endeavor – but he had a steadfast devotion to those he considered friends and family that was awfully alluring to her. That, coupled with the mystery of his past, made more curious about him than ever before. 'Is it possible,' she wondered to herself, 'that I could find some peace at last in this place?' The question rolled over and over in her mind, the answer maddeningly out of reach. She wrestled with it for several hours before finally fell asleep, the answer no more evident when she awoke later than it was before.

* * *

_A/N: Wow, it's been almost two and a half months since I updated this thing. Sorry to keep everyone waiting, I hope this chapter was worth the wait.  
The trouble isn't over quite yet though. Omega Squad has yet to face their most insidious opponents: politicians. _


	10. Trials and Tribulation

**Chapter 9: Trials and Tribulation**

The transit from Verdas wound up taking a little more than two days. Under ideal conditions the ship could have made the journey in a matter of hours, but a side effect of the damage it had suffered was that the supra-luminal propulsion system was working at diminished efficiency. If it had been a Cornerian ship they would have been stuck in orbit for several more days while enough systems were brought back online to allow for safe transit, but Kewan engineering seemed to follow a somewhat different design philosophy. Essential systems were kept as simple and straightforward as possible, to make them harder to knock out and easier to repair. The end result was that, although the _Intruder_'s weaponry, combat shielding, and its sophisticated sensor and stealth systems were out of order until it could be fixed at a shipyard, the navigational shields and the propulsion system were operational enough that the corvette could limp back to the Kew system with minimal delay.

For Kursed, two days in close social contact with other people was far more than she was used to, and she kept to herself for most of the journey. To their credit, the members of Omega Squad did their best to give her as much privacy as they were able on the ship, but a good number of sections had been breached when she had launched her sole Nova Bomb at the corvette, so there was only so much space to go around. In addition, there were several rooms that housed those members of the ship's original crew in temporary confinement, and those were usually kept sealed to prevent the prisoners from attempting to escape or cause trouble. Three times a day, Shadow brought the prisoners the food and others things that they would need during their short stay in the temporary holding areas. The black fox continued to mystify her; he had shown himself to be perfectly capable of killing the crew without a second thought when he and his friends had been fighting to gain control over the ship, and she had half-expected him to either execute the prisoners or drop them off somewhere where they would be out of the way. Instead, he had kept them on the ship and had taken the responsibility of their care and well-being upon himself. The dual extremes that he exhibited made her more curious than ever about his background, and that provided her with something to occupy her mind during the otherwise-uneventful flight back to the major center of government in this system.

A little while before they were scheduled to arrive in Kew's orbit, Kursed got tired of waiting around with nothing to do and left the room that she had taken as her quarters to look for Shadow. Intellectually she knew that his real name (first name, at least) was Arlen, and yet she thought of him more through the alias that he had been using since they had first met. It seemed more appropriate, somehow, since he was secretive to an extreme about certain aspects of his past, and she had a strong hunch that he would be loathe to reveal much about it unless pressed.

She found him in the ship's small but relatively ornate lounge, just sitting in a chair and staring out at the viewport. Since they were currently in supraluminal transit, the view was a psychedelic swirl of Doppler-distorted light, but he seemed to draw some measure of peace from the view. He heard her come in as soon as the door opened, but didn't turn his head to look at her until her footsteps stopped and she was standing right in front of him. Then he simply lifted his gaze up to meet hers and asked politely, "Something on your mind?"

"Just bored," she answered. The look on his face suggested he didn't fully believe her, but he didn't press the point. She thought for a moment, and then asked, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me what the big deal is between you and Bertrand and Maltare?"

He was silent for a long moment, and she could sense him debating whether or not to tell her anything. Before he made up his mind one way or the other, though, the door to the lounge opened again and Sondra burst through in a hurry. Both foxes looked up at her as she skidded to a halt, and Shadow asked, "Why are you so excited?"

"Excited" was an understatement; the green-haired hacker was literally _vibrating_ with eagerness, practically hopping up and down as she strode into the lounge and met Shadow's gaze with the widest grin he had ever seen on her face. Normally she had that expression on only when she had caused some sort of electronic mayhem, but there was no way for her to do such a thing on the ship without fouling up something vital, so he waited for her explanation.

Sondra was so exuberant that her words tumbled out in a rambling torrent. "Hey, boss, you just gotta see this!" she exclaimed. "When that whatcha-callit, that Nova Bomb, hit the _Intruder_, it overloaded the electrical system with the feedback surge and the computer shut down immediately to avoid getting fried, and so they never had the time to execute even the most basic security precaution, and we took over the ship so fast that they couldn't get anything up and running before then and…"

"What did you find?" Kursed said perfunctorily, causing the raccoon to stop for a moment and glare at her for interrupting. Kursed returned the glare in equal measure, and eventually Sondra shifted her gaze to Shadow and said, "There's a heavily encrypted database inside the computer's files, one that was separate from the regular operating systems. I just cracked it."

"Just like that?" he asked a little skeptically.

"Well, I was bored," she replied, "and I've been working on it for most of the trip back, ever since we got the computer back online. I discovered it when I was doing that security double-check you recommended."

When she didn't immediately say anything after that, Shadow raised one eyebrow and asked, "So what was on it?"

"Only everything anyone would want to know about the Purists and where they've all gone to ground." That simple statement caught the full attention of both foxes, and their gazes fastened immediately upon her face. She grinned at the sudden interest both of them showed in her discovery, and continued, "It seems that this ship, and several others like it, was being used as a go-between among the various places the Purists have gone into hiding, carrying orders and updates and the like. It also has the latest versions of their encryption codes, and records of where the major pockets of fugitives are." Sondra spared a moment to glance at Kursed and remark, "Incidentally, you must have _really_ pissed someone off, because there's a standing order out to kill you, one way or another."

The blue vixen gave a thin, humorless smile at that revelation. "The price of success," she stated philosophically. "Death marks are nothing new to me."

"Still, you may wish to be a little more careful from now on," Shadow advised. "Maybe you should take it easy for a few days."

She whirled at that remark and glared at him menacingly. "I don't need you treating me like I'm helpless!" she snarled at him. "I can take care of myself just fine!"

He was taken aback by the venom in her voice, and she felt a little foolish for snapping at him the way she had, but there was no way she was going to apologize so soon after such a vehement outburst.

The tension between them was partly defused by Sondra clearing her throat to get their attention again. "I think we would want to have a meeting real soon, to discuss what we're going to do about this information. Right now we have an advantage because no one else knows we've captured this ship, but if we tell the wrong people, that secret could get out real fast, and then the enemy will take measure to correct this security breach."

"Good point, Sondra," Shadow told her. "Get everyone together and have them meet here in the lounge, and we'll go over our options before we drop back to normal velocity." The raccoon nodded and hurried back out the door, and Shadow turned to Kursed with narrowing eyes. "I can understand if you resent the implication that you can't take care of yourself, but there was no call to bite my head off the way you did just now. Whether you care or not, I consider you a friend of sorts and I don't want to lose any more friends or loved ones than I already have." He waited for an answer, but she remained quiet, since she didn't have anything to say in reply that wouldn't sound petulant or arrogant. After a moment, he changed the subject. "You may wish to at least sit in on this conversation, since it concerns you to a certain degree as well."

The door opened again and the rest of Omega Squad filtered in, with Dr. Bertrand, Amber and Matthew close behind. Shadow raised an eyebrow and said, "That was quick."

Sondra grinned again and replied, "We half-expected you would want a meeting to discuss our options beforehand, so everyone was already nearby. All they were waiting for was confirmation."

Everyone took seats or stood as the wished, and Shadow turned to address the whole group with his next statement. "All right people, the fun isn't over yet. The first order of business is what happens once we reach our destination; I have a feeling that Kew's air/space control is going to be very jumpy when a patrol corvette drops out into normal space in close orbit."

"I already have a comm protocol set up for when that happens," Sondra said. "Mike and I have been working on it when I wasn't cracking that database." Shadow nodded in acknowledgement of her forethought, and waited for the next question.

It came from Doctor Bertrand. "What about Matthew and I?" he asked. "What will happen to us?"

Shadow frowned in thought and didn't answer the question immediately. Finally, he answered a little slowly, choosing his words with care. "I'm pretty certain that the authorities will at least hear you out first, before they decide on anything. Doc, your case is already at least partially known to them because of Michael's condition, and I can say with relative confidence that you will be acquitted of any serious charges. I also think that Matthew will likely be acquitted as well, especially if his role in your extraction and Amber's location is revealed." His gaze turned to Kursed, and he asked her, "What about you, do you have any input to the situation?"

"I'm getting paid for retrieval only," she replied. "What happens during the arraignment is of no concern to me."

Shadow rolled his eyes at her reply, and returned his attention to Doctor Bertrand and Matthew. "I can't _guarantee_ that you two will be paroled, however, since there's one individual, highly placed in the Senate, who has a one-slip-and-you're-history mentality, and he wields a great deal of influence in the current government." There was a small chorus of groans from the various members of Omega Squad seated in the room, and that got the attention of everyone else who wasn't in the know.

"Who is it?" Matthew asked nervously.

"Senator Frasso Vares," Shadow replied, and Kursed was a little surprised at the contempt and disgust that filled his voice.

"What's so bad about him?" she asked. "Can he not be trusted?"

"Oh, he can be trusted alright," Eilarra replied tartly. "You can trust absolutely that he will do whatever benefits him most, and if it involves stepping on some who are less fortunate, or in his way, then so be it. He offered aid and support to the Resistance during the latter portion of the insurrection, but when the Purists were garnering power and when they had the upper hand, he just sat on his oversized bottom and kept quiet." That outburst from the normally gentle-natured feline spoke volumes about the sort of person that this Senator Vares was.

"So," Shadow said in conclusion, "once we get back home we'll offload our prisoners, and then likely we'll have to answer to a review board, regarding our actions. We didn't exactly ask for permission before going off on this op."

"Why should you have to answer for anything?" Kursed asked. "You said it yourself earlier, the mission was time-sensitive and secrecy was paramount."

Shadow smiled thinly at her comment. "Some in the Senate will not see things that way. There are more than a few that view me as a loose cannon, and feel that I require strict supervision and close scrutiny. They'll likely be hopping mad once the details of our latest op come to light."

Sondra checked her chronometer and said, "Hey we've got barely an hour until we drop out of supralight. I think we ought to check all the systems and make sure everything we need will be ready. Wouldn't do to pull off such a wild success only to get vaporized by a defense satellite because we startled a jumpy traffic control officer, now, would it?" Shadow grinned at the thought of the ignominy of that particular fate, and shooed the raccoon out the door so she could go about the tasks that she had just described. Seeing that the meeting was adjourned, the rest of the group got up, stretched, and began filing out.

Shadow remained for a moment, longer, his expression that of a man facing a difficult and uncertain battle. Kursed approached him carefully and asked, "Are you alright?" in a tone far softer than he was used to hearing from her.

He looked up at her and cracked an insolent grin. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were worried about me," he quipped.

"Which just shows how little you know," she retorted. He looked at her for a long moment in silence, and she eventually conceded, "You're the closest thing I've had to a friend in a long time. I'd almost forgotten what it was like."

He nodded in reply and decided to confide in her. "I have no idea what's going to happen once we reach Kew, but I'm fairly certain it won't be pleasant. I'm worried, about my friends and about Amber."

"Right now fretting won't solve anything," she told him. "I think all you can do for now is wait and see what the future holds."

"I know," he murmured. "And that's the most frustrating part."

* * *

The corvette dropped back to sub-light velocities slightly less than an hour after the meeting was adjourned. As predicted, they were hailed immediately by a rather nervous air/space control officer who demanded to know the registry of the ship they were using. All of the crew and free passengers were on the bridge at the time and privy to the conversation, so they were able to witness the expert way in which Shadow negotiated them through the security procedures. He briefly explained the situation to the collie on the other end of the channel, letting the officer know that there were prisoners on board that needed to be taken care of, and obtaining permission for them to put the corvette into a repair berth at the shipyard while they made ready to transition down to the planet.

Shortly after that was settled, however, there was a second call, this one carrying the tag of a high-ranking government office. Shadow answered it again, and the screen resolved into the image of a human male wearing elaborate business attire that, from his expression, he found rather uncomfortable. Or maybe it was the message that he had to deliver that was the cause of the sour look on his face. "Mr. Barker, your presence is required at the Capital Courthouse at once."

"Right now?" Shadow asked, trying to stall. "I'm in the middle of something important at the moment."

"The message sent to me was quite insistent," the man replied. His expression softened a bit and he said, "Senator Vares has called for an inquiry into the circumstances of your recent activities, and has ordered that you and everyone else on that corvette, with the exception of your prisoners, be escorted to the Courthouse at once upon landing. That includes anyone whom you have rescued during your latest mission."

"Of course he has," Shadow replied through clenched teeth. "Is this for any reason in particular or just general meddling?"

"I didn't get any of the particulars," was the answer. "However, he did specify that the bounty hunter currently travelling with you should come with the rest of your party, as should Doctor Bertrand."

"How'd he know I was here?" Kursed murmured to no one in particular. She was already starting to dislike this Senator Vares, and she hadn't even met him yet. He was far too nosy for her liking, and much too controlling.

"I see," Shadow replied to the man on the other end of the channel. "We'll be on our way down there in a few minutes." The man on the other end gave a half-salute and closed the channel.

Shadow turned to see Kursed giving him a mischievous look as she asked, "So, your full name is Arlen Barker?"

"That's right; don't wear it out," he replied. "Now you see why I usually prefer to go by Shadow." He sighed and turned to the rest of the group and said, "Well, we knew there would be complications from rushing out without telling anyone, and this looks like it."

"This doesn't sound so bad," Amber said from the back. "I mean, won't he understand that it was worth the risk?"

Shadow shook his head at her reasoning. "The only thing on his mind right now, I imagine, is that we didn't get permission from certain members of the Provisional Senate - him included - before we went on this mission. The stated reason is that technically I'm just a private citizen and they don't want us messing up any official military operations; but I think that for him at least, it's all about control."

With that unhappy thought in mind, the entire group started for the docking bay where the _Infiltrator_ rested. Michael had spent some of the time in transit making repairs to the systems, but there were still quite a few things that were best handled by professional mechanics in a fully equipped workshop. The shuttle was in good enough condition to ferry everyone down to the planet's surface, however, so there was no need to wait for ground control to send a shuttle up to fetch them.

Kursed opted to take the _Cloud Runner_ down herself, rather than let it sit in the _Intruder_'s docking bay. There might have been trouble in finding a place to park it, of course, but she was adamantly against leaving her starfighter up in orbit when she had no way to reach it that wouldn't depend on someone else's good graces. Long years of experience had taught her that the times she would most need the fighter would be the times it would be most difficult to reach. Fortunately for her, there was space available near where the _Infiltrator_ touched down. Near the tarmac, she could see a trio of official-looking black hovercars waiting to convey the group to its destination. She climbed out of the cockpit and leapt nimbly to the pavement before the ground crew had gotten the debarkation ladder into position. She waved it away brusquely and fixed the crew chief with a withering stare. "If I find so much as a scratch when I get back, I'll come looking for you," she warned him.

The hound's head jerk once in a nervous nod as he replied, "Yes, ma'am, it'll be in perfect condition when you return." She gave him a thin, humorless smile in reply and started walking towards the line of vehicles at the edge of the landing field. Shadow, Zeke, and Edgar had already climbed into the first one, and Matthew, Dr. Bertrand and Michael were getting into the second one, which left the last one for her, Eilarra, Amber and Sondra. Kursed wasn't happy about sharing the same space with the raccoon hacker, since Sondra seemed to take a perverse delight in baiting her, but for once, she didn't have any smart remarks or inflammatory quips to offer. The relative silence seemed to make things all the more ominous.

The convoy proceeded to the Courthouse without incident, each vehicle pulling up by the front entrance and disgorging its passengers before leaving to allow the next one in line to pull up. When they were all assembled, a small group of security agents led them into the building and to the guard checkpoint. Each of them had to check all weapons on their person at the entrance and then pass through a scanner to see if they had any hidden weapons that they hadn't bother to inform anyone about. Eilarra, Sondra, Michael, Dr. Bertrand, Matthew, and Amber all passed through without any pause or incident. Zeke experienced a slight delay as they double checked to make sure he wasn't carrying anything incendiary or explosive, and then Edgar was waved through; the scan on him came up clean. Shadow was next in line, pulling out his oversized energy pistol and laying that and the long knives he used on the table. He started to pass through the scanner, but it beeped and the guards sent him back to the drop-off table. A couple of minutes later a small pile of assorted knives, a pair of tiny and easily-concealed laser pistols, a multi-function tool and one midsized sword in a simple scabbard lay on the table beside the items he'd left initially, causing Kursed to shake her head in a combination of amazement and amusement at the small arsenal that he'd left behind.

Finally it was her turn, although she didn't have nearly the concealed armament that Shadow had. She laid her stun pistol and a compact but powerful hand blaster on the table and unbuckled the utility belt that carried the more specialized and esoteric implements of destruction that she employed in her line of work. She didn't leave her staff behind though, since hard-conditioned instincts shrieked against leaving herself completely unarmed and she doubted the scanner would flag something as exotic as a Cerinian Battle Staff. Her hunch was borne out as a green light flashed on the scanner as she strode through it and the guards waved her along. She hurried to catch up with the rest of the group, giving Shadow a mischievous wink and observing, "You must have a _very_ tough time at public transit hubs."

"I usually use private transportation," he replied in a deadpan tone. He looked up as they approached a set of massive, ornate wooden doors and sighed in resignation. "Time to face the music," he said, in a world-weary tone that put her on guard.

The doors swung slowly open, admitting the group into a cavernous, arching room that had a heavy, brooding feel to it. Seated at the far end was an older, darker-skinned human wearing what appeared to be a variation on a judge's robe, and a rather irritated look on his face. Off to the right was a mix of eight individuals in formal attire, foremost among them a heavyset human in his middle years, with a sour, imperious expression on his face. This was someone used to getting his way, by fair means or foul, and the gimlet stare he was directing at Shadow as the black fox walked stoically down the center aisle to the witness podium left no doubt about his intention here. There was no doubt in Kursed's mind that this was the infamous Senator Frasso Vares; just looking at him made her hackles go up.

Amber, Matthew, and Doctor Bertrand were directed to wait outside in the common area. The rest of the group, her included, took seats in the front row of the audience section, and the bailiff - a broad-shouldered bear with dark brown fur - announced the beginning of the proceedings. "All rise; this hearing is now in order, Adjudicator Joel Brontson presiding." Shadow was sworn in with little preamble, and Senator Vares stepped out to act as an inquisitor/prosecutor. Shadow met his spiteful gaze with a neutral expression and a steady, unblinking stare of his own. After a few moments, Vares turned to the group he had left, presumably a jury, to address them: "Ladies and gentlemen, I have long said that allowing this miscreant to remain free and unrestrained was a mistake of grave proportions. Now my predictions have come to pass; this… person… has acted in a capricious and precipitous manner, without regard for existing protocols, and risked undoing everything that we have spent the last six and a half months trying to build."

_We?_ Kursed heard the thought echoed in several minds, some of whom were sitting next to her. She tried to get a better read on Vares himself, to see where he was trying to go with his line of rhetoric, but the impressions she got kept shifting, like an oil slick on water, preventing her from clearly seeing what actually lay beneath the surface. Apparently the "truth" was a somewhat flexible concept to this career politician. Also apparent to her, he did not have completely unanimous support in the members of the assembled jury. In the background, Vares continued his calumny until the Adjudicator cut him off; "Senator Vares, we did not come here to listen to another speech over old news. Either get to your point quickly or I will strike this inquiry and declare the matter closed."

Vares was irritated at being interrupted, but his outward demeanor did not indicate anything of that feeling. "Yes, Your Honor," he replied unctuously. He turned back to Shadow and began his line of questioning. "Mr. Barker, is it true that you undertook a covert operation without informing members of the Senate beforehand?"

"I left a message that I had something urgent that I needed to take care of," Shadow replied. "I don't have to let the Senate know every detail if I so much as sneeze anymore."

"That may be so," Vares answered with a sneer, "but now your rash and impulsive actions may have provoked the remaining elements of the former administration, and risked triggering reprisal attacks for you actions."

"I weighed my options very carefully, Senator," Shadow said in a low voice, almost biting out each word. "This mission required secrecy and speed, and there wasn't time to wait for the Senate to get around to formally okaying it when they felt like doing so. I was only made aware of it at all because of a security leak from the compound, and if we delayed any, it was entirely possible that the forces stationed there would discover the leak and be put on high alert. And if they found the source, they would certainly take measure to silence him."

Vares waved a hand in dismissal and continued, "Leaving that discussion aside, is it not also true that you solicited the help of an outside agent, one bounty hunter named Kursed?"

"No, I did not," Shadow answered evenly. "We met by happenstance on Verdas, and decided to work together to further a common goal." He didn't add that he had all but threatened to take her out of the equation if she _didn't_ work with him, but that was neither here nor there. "I don't see what bearing that has on the matter at hand anyway," he added. "As a matter of fact, I haven't even heard the reason why I'm here in the first place. What have I been formally charged with?"

"Nothing, yet," Adjudicator Bronston said. "This is simply a hearing to determine if you and your friends have acted outside of you're allowed discretion. Although," he continued, turning his gaze back to Senator Vares, "I have yet to hear of any compelling reason to make me believe that they have."

"Here is your reason, then, Adjudicator," Vares said acerbically. "Two days after this miscreant and his little group of vigilantes left this system there was a series of attacks on various civilian targets all around the planet. I think it's abundantly clear that they were in retaliation for what his little mob of vandals did when they were on their quest of vengeance. After over six months of calm and peace, he wants to reignite hostilities and plunge us back into a state of war again!"

The room erupted into barely controlled chaos at that statement, people shouting questions and counter-arguments at each other until the bailiff bellowed a call for order. Slowly, almost grudgingly, the crowd subsided into quiescence, although there was a susurrus of voices that could be heard whispering in the background. Adjudicator Bronston glared down at Vares and said harshly, "Senator, I would caution you to not make any more inflammatory remarks like that again in the course of this hearing. Unless you have proof of intent, you will refrain from making any additional accusations of this nature that are not borne out by evidence."

Vares opened his mouth to protest, but the Adjudicator cut him off with a warning glare, and he sullenly assented, "Yes, Your Honor."

The Adjudicator leaned back in his seat and addressed his next question to Shadow; "Mister Barker, under the circumstances present at the time, do you think you should have done anything differently?"

"No, Your Honor," shadow replied promptly. "As I said before, speed and secrecy were essential to the operation. If I had asked the Senate to make it an official mission, it would have certainly taken a lot longer for it to be approved, and there was also the possibility of the Purists learning of our intention and preparing an ambush to welcome us."

"Are you accusing someone in the Senate of treason?" Vares asked indignantly.

"No, but if the shoe fits…" Shadow shot back. The exchange was prevented from continuing any further by the pounding of the Adjudicator's gavel on the dais, and Shadow decided to clarify his statement. "It doesn't necessarily require an enemy agent in the Senate body to learn things; someone could make a slip of the tongue in an unsecured area, or a listening device could pick up on the discussion. And there was also the _guarantee_ that if we waited for official sanction, we'd be waiting for weeks before we got it." A murmur of agreement echoed through the room at this statement; one of the truisms regarding the Senate was the more voices that had to be heard on any given idea, the longer it took for anything meaningful to be decided, by orders of magnitude. "Given the risks, we decided that the gains were worth the risks of proceeding without formal support, especially once you consider that in doing so, we were able to rescue my sister in the process."

There was a sharp collective intake of breath at that statement, and one of the members of the tribunal board leaned forward and asked, "Lady Amber is alive and well?"

"She's waiting just outside the courtroom," Shadow said evenly. "As it turned out, if we _hadn't_ proceeded when we did, we would have probably missed her and she would still be in enemy hands."

Vares snorted contemptuously at that statement. "You can't _possibly_ have known at the time that she was there."

Shadow glared at him and retorted, "Senator, how many times have I made a snap decision with no supporting evidence at the time and found justification for it later?"

Vares waved off that remark dismissively and said, "My point still stands; you are a loose cannon, an unrestrained agent of chaos that is much more likely to prolong this conflict than bring it to a close. And I think our great society deservers better heroes than a maverick with a hair trigger temper, a pyromaniac, a sociopath, and an anarchist."

"Hey, what about the rest of us?" Michael whispered in an aside to Eilarra, who snickered at the comment but strove to present a straight face to the rest of the people in the room.

Vares ignored him and continued, "And what about your association with this bounty hunter, hmm? An individual with even more questionable motives and loyalties than your own? How do you justify associating with this sort of scum?"

Kursed's ears flattened against her skull and she glared at Vares for that comment, but Shadow kept his gaze locked on the human's and responded, "I have found her loyalties to be quite consistent and predictable, and I would much rather associate with her than with you, Senator."

"Oh, I see," Vares replied. "Of course, I should have realized this." His gaze seemed to soften, but it was a false sympathy, a condescending one. "I can understand your desire for… companionship… after the tragic demise of your wife, but I think you venture too far in consorting with a person of this caliber."

"How dare he…" Kursed growled, starting to rise from her seat. Eilarra placed a warning hand on her shoulder and shook her head in mute warning, and the vixen stopped where she was, but if looks were laser beams, Vares would have had a hole burned through his chest by then. Her relatively quite fuming was drowned out by the bedlam that erupted at Vares's latest statement, with some of the jury demanding that he be silenced and others shouting for him to clarify his remark.

Emerging over all of this, however, was Shadow's voice, as the black fox snarled at the senator and rose to his feet, saying, "Senator Vares, you may insult me, you may mock me, you may accuse me of all sorts of things, but don't you _dare_ patronize me, and above all don't bring Selene into this! She had more courage in one finger than you have in your whole being, and to insinuate that I…."

Shadow was cut off by the pounding of the Adjudicator's gavel and a call for order; "Sit down at once, Mister Barker."

"But you heard what he said!" Shadow said as he turned to face the Adjudicator, ears still flattened against his head, but fortunately no longer snarling.

"Sit down at once or I will have you cited for contempt of court," the human warned.

"Yes, Your Honor." Shadow had to struggle visibly to bring his emotions under control, but he complied with the order and sank back into the chair.

Adjudicator Bronston then turned to Vares and said, "And as for you Senator, I think you have said quite enough. Your vendetta against this young man is well known, and I maintain that it was a mistake to allow you to participate in these proceedings at all. We have learned all that we can of value from this, now we will retire to deliberate and render a verdict." He pounded the gavel again to punctuate his statement, and he and the rest of the jury rose and recessed to private chambers to deliberate. The rest of the people in the courtroom, including Kursed, Shadow, the rest of Omega Squad, and even Vares were escorted outside the room to wait in the atrium for the rendering of the final verdict.

* * *

They waited for a half an hour before they were called back into the courtroom, with Amber trying to calm her brother down in the meantime, and meeting with only limited success in that endeavor. It was just as well that he and Vares were separated, since in the state he was in at the time, violence was a very real possibility. When the bailiff called them back in, however, Vares was conspicuous by his absence, and Shadow seemed a little calmer than when he left. He stood in front of the panel of jurists, and listened while they rendered their verdict.

Adjudicator Bronston stood to give the verdict: "Mister Barker, it is the decision of this court, upon reviewing the accounts presented and the guidelines established for this situation, that you did not act outside the discretion allowed to you in your latest mission." Shadow breathed a sigh of relief at that pronouncement, but the Adjudicator wasn't finished. "However, it is also the decision of this court that, for the immediate future, you and your team should seek Senate confirmation and sanction before undertaking any more covert operations in any venue."

Shadow looked a little disappointed by that restriction, but knew better than to actually say anything that could jeopardize his position. He was too cautious, however, to simply take that verdict at face value. "If I may ask, Your Honor; why the restriction?"

"There are certain political considerations that require a degree of civil stability," Adjudicator Bronston said wearily. No doubt he was expecting a protest over this matter. "I understand and appreciate how much you and your friends have already done and endured on our civilization's behalf, but for the moment, it would be better if you kept your activities to a minimum for now."

Shadow nodded briefly. "I see, sir. I'll abide by the ruling of this court." He almost snickered at the surprise on the Adjudicator's face; apparently, he had been expecting more of an argument. Shadow thought for a moment, and then asked, "What about Doctor Bertrand and Matthew? Is the court going to rule on their disposition today?"

"We need to call in your sister and would like you to remain on hand for testimony, but everyone else here is free to leave if they so desire," was the answer. "This will simply be to determine if they were coerced into aiding the Purists against their will, and given what you have told us about Bertrand's situation, I have little doubt that this will be a quick hearing."

One of the guards at the door on the far end of the room opened it to call Amber, and the rest of Omega Squad, along with Kursed, filtered out after she had come in. They were allowed to retrieve the gear they had left at the security checkpoint, and everyone except the blue vixen went their separate ways after exiting. Kursed was about to head towards the bounty office to see if she could still collect the reward for finding Bertrand, but before she even got a block away from the courthouse, she became aware of the approach of another individual intent on getting her attention. She casually strolled around the corner and waited for her follower to come after her, then grabbed him by his shirt collar and pressed him against the brick wall.

"Why are you following me?" she growled. "Don't you know how dangerous that can be?" As she asked him this, she pulled the small blaster pistol from its hidden sheath under her sleeve and pressed the barrel of the weapon into the human's sternum to emphasize her point.

"I merely seek to pass along some information to a worthy hunter," he said. "It has come to the attention of… someone I work on behalf of, that you have taken up an association with a certain individual. He believes that you should be informed about just what kind of person you are working with."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere," she told him coldly. "Tell me what you came to say, and then make yourself scarce."

"If I may, milady?" he said, indicating his left jacket pocket. He slowly reached his hand inside and pulled out a small data screen, then just as carefully handed it over to her.

"Is that everything, then?" she asked. He nodded, and she told him, "Then go." She waited until he was far away and out of sight before she glanced down to see what the data screen's readout had to say. When she read what was on it, her eyes widened in shock for a second, and then narrowed in anger. Without further ado, she turned back towards the front entrance of the courthouse, and crossed the street lo wait for Shadow without catching the attention of any of the court's security personnel.

She didn't have long to wait; like the Adjudicator said, the hearings were short. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, the black fox and the red vixen exited the building and came walking towards her location. Amber saw her first and waved a greeting, but Kursed didn't return it; instead, she waited for them to come to her. As Shadow came within reach, she pulled the blaster, stuck the barrel against his stomach and said, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't glaze your gallstones."

"Because I no longer have that particular organ?" he replied. The levity of his answer was belied by the wary look in his eyes and the sudden tension in his frame. For a second, Kursed wondered if confronting him this directly was a good idea, or even a safe one, but she was in too far to back out now. Amber's eyes widened with fright at the sight of the weapon the other vixen had pulled on her brother, but she had no formal combat training, so trying to wrest the gun out of the bounty hunter's hand would likely be a futile effort. Shadow's eyes narrowed slightly and he asked, in as even a tone as he could muster, "What's this all about?"

"Explain this," she said sharply, thrusting the data screen into his face. He pulled his head back so his eyes could focus on the readout, and she could feel the shock and dismay radiating off him once he saw what was on it. The data displayed on the screen was a detailed description of the deaths of several prominent figures of the resistance movements that had opposed the Purist regime when it was still in power, and it implicated him in all of them.

Amber grabbed the screen out of the bounty hunter's hands, unwilling to believe that her brother could actually be responsible for the heinous acts it described. She looked up at him after reading it, eyes wide with shock and glimmering with tears. "It's not true, is it?" she pleaded. "Tell me it's not true!"

"I'm sorry, Amber," he said softly. "To a certain extent, it's true." He looked up to Kursed and asked her, in a different tone of voice, "Where did you find this?"

"I didn't _find_ it," she clarified. "It was handed to me, by someone who said that he worked for someone who wanted me to know just who I was working with." She paused for a second and saw suspicion creep into his eyes. "I take it you have a guess as to who this mysterious organizer might be?"

"I can think of two possibilities off the top of my head," he replied in a soft, yet harsh tone of voice. "This information is supposed to be classified; the man who showed it to you is now guilty of a first-class felony."

She gave him an acid look. "So, you admit that you were the one who killed these people?"

"It was me, and yet it wasn't me," he replied.

"Care to explain that?" Kursed was definitely not in the mood for riddles or evasive answers at the moment.

"I suppose I must," he said resignedly. "But not here. Let's find a place away from prying ears first." He looked over to Amber, who was still somewhat in shock at his admission. "You should probably hear this too, sis. You deserve to know."

"Start walking," Kursed said. "I know of a good spot where we can have this discussion in private." The three of them began heading towards a secluded area of a nearby park, all of them preoccupied with their own thoughts. Kursed was surprised by Shadow's admission of guilt, and much more reluctant to trust him after what he had hidden from her. Amber was dismayed, and hoping fervently that her brother had a good explanation for what she had seen on the data screen. But probably the most heavy-hearted of them was the black fox himself, who was preparing both mentally and emotionally to recount the darkest days of his life.

* * *

_Author's Notes: Okay, I'm not completely happy with this chapter. I had a bunch of different ideas for how the hearing/trial would play out, but a lot of them conflicted and it was difficult to hammer enough of them together to create a coherent narrative. Regardless, I think the basic idea came through. Stay tuned for the next chapter: "The Awful Truth". _

_Some people have been asking, "When is Fox going to make an appearance?" Well, there are a few more chapters to go before that happens, but rest assured, dear readers, Fox will be making an appearance here shortly. _


	11. The Awful Truth

_Just a forewarning; this chapter contains a couple of descriptions of graphic injury_

**

* * *

Chapter 10: The Awful Truth**

The three of them walked along the roads of downtown Kewana City, aiming towards the central park area; a carefully cultivated plot of land that offered a bright spot of greenery in the otherwise-urbanized environment. It would be an ideal place for what they had in mind; open enough for them to detect would-be eavesdroppers, and private enough that casual passerby would be unlikely to overhear the conversation. Shadow's pace and bearing were like those of a condemned criminal going to his execution; Amber walked close beside him, keeping a hand on his arm in a gesture of support. Likely that reassurance was all that was keeping him on his feet right now.

Kursed kept her emotions carefully in check, not letting either of the other foxes see the sudden conflict in her mind. She was beginning to wonder if she had pushed for this confrontation too fast, but now that events had been set into motion, the last thing she wanted to do was admit that she had second thoughts. She also wondered why Shadow had admitted to what he had done when she had confronted him about it; she had expected him to deny the allegations presented in the datascreen she had been given. His confession had taken her by surprise, and now she wondered if there was some other reason why he was going to tell her and Amber about his past.

They arrived in the park and found a couple of bench seats near a pond that had a fountain in the middle of it. The stream of water created a constant background of sound, serving as white noise that would make it a little more difficult to eavesdrop on their conversation. Kursed waited until everyone had taken a seat before she spoke; "So, I presume you weren't just being evasive when you said that you were, and yet were not, the one who killed those people?"

Shadow fidgeted for a moment before he replied. "Where to begin?" he mused. "I don't suppose you've heard of something called a Mindstamp?"

"No, I can't say that I have," she replied.

"Wasn't that a procedure touted as a kinder alternative to the death penalty a few decades ago?" Amber interjected. "Instead of executing a condemned criminal, the convict's memories were suppressed and replaced with manufactured memories. The old personality of a menace to society was erased and a new personality was implanted that worked for the greater good." She paused for a moment, and then her eyes widened in horror as the full impact of his question sank in. "They didn't…! I thought that procedure was outlawed decades ago!"

"Matter of convenience trumped matters of law as far as Maltare was concerned, I think," Shadow said darkly.

"Why was it outlawed?" Kursed wanted to know. "And how exactly did it fit into everything?"

"It was outlawed because there was a massive surge of public sentiment against meddling so thoroughly with someone's mind," Amber said heatedly.

"While I would agree with that statement, that wasn't the only reason it was discontinued," Shadow said. "There were also a couple of practical reasons why it was discontinued, the foremost of which was, the procedure had a recidivism rate of nearly forty percent."

"What exactly does that mean?" Kursed asked.

"About forty percent of the people whose minds were wiped regained at least part of their original memory after a period of time," he explained. "There were some who reverted back to original behavior patterns when the conditioning broke, which was bad enough, but even worse were those who believed that they were 'good' people, only to have memories of violent crimes committed suddenly resurface. There was also the issue of friends and relatives of victims of violent crimes feeling that the perpetrator got off too lightly, and taking justice into their own hands." He paused for a moment, and then concluded, "It was a political nightmare for the administration at the time, and eventually the Mindstamp was discontinued, all devices that were used for it dismantled."

"So how does this…?" Kursed started to ask, but then her voice trailed off as she answered her own question. "This was Maltare's plan to keep you from turning on him, wasn't it?"

"It was." His head was bowed, the shame of being used in such a manner radiating off of him in palpable waves. "He had what he considered to be the perfect assassin; completely loyal, deadly efficient, and disposable if I was ever actually caught." He continued, "In order to test the effectiveness of the conditioning, he had an 'evaluation center' set up, where he put captured resistance members and watched me kill them."

"That's _sick_," Amber said in disgust.

"That's the sort of individual he is," Shadow told her. "The suffering of others is amusement to him, and he sees people as either tools to be used until broken, or obstacles to be swept aside."

"But what could he possibly have hoped to accomplish with this?" Kursed asked.

"That I don't know," he told her. "But there was also a contingency plan that he had put in place, in case the conditioning failed at an inopportune moment. A small vial of a potent neurotoxin was inserted at the base of my skull and grafted to my spinal column. If I turned on him, or any of the top officials of the Purist administration, a touch of a button on a remote would pump the stuff straight into my brain, resulting in a quick, if excruciating, death."

Something clicked in Kursed's memory. "When I confronted Algus Fant, he had a remote that he tried to trigger. I thought it was some sort of weapon at the time, but it must have been a remote for the toxin. He probably thought I was another one of Maltare's projects." The notion sort of amused and revolted her at the same time, but then another thought crossed her mind. "Removing that vial must be what you need Dr. Bertrand for, isn't it?"

"It is."

"So, if Maltare had you so firmly under his thumb, how did you break his control?"

"I, um… I didn't, really; not on my own," he confessed. "I… I don't remember much of that time, I don't know if the implanted personality failed at any point in time beforehand, but I do remember what it finally took to free me from it permanently." He took a deep breath, and concluded, "It was Selene who was able to appeal to… to the real me, and bring me back… and it ultimately cost her life." Even as he began to recount the tale, the memories of that time came flooding back to him, as vivid then as the day they had happened.

* * *

"_I'm not really sure about this, Director," General Algus Fant said nervously. "I mean, this technology was never too reliable even under favorable conditions, and the conditions here can hardly be called favorable." _

_The other man beside the portly general didn't respond to that comment immediately. Dackar Maltare, Director of Internal Security for the Kewan Purist Administration, simply regarded the other man with a silent stare, long enough to make Fant squirm slightly with nervousness. Maltare had swiftly developed a reputation among his peers for decisiveness, ruthlessness, and unrelenting cruelty. He was of somewhat slender build, with unusually pale skin for a human that contrasted sharply with the black, leather-like clothing he wore. He also wore black leather half-gloves that featured metal spikes on the basal knuckles; a peculiar affectation that nevertheless added to the air of menace which surrounded him. _

_Maltare let Fant fidget for a few more moments before finally answering, "I will attribute your comments to ignorance this time General, but in the future I will not appreciate any disparaging remarks regarding my sense or judgment." _

"_Y-yes, Director," Fant stammered nervously. _

_Maltare offered what was intended to be a reassuring smile. "Well, then, let me set your fears at ease. You wanted a means to infiltrate the rebels and root them out, did you not? Well, here is the perfect means with which to do just that." Both men turned to regard the third occupant of the room, who had thus far not said anything, or even moved from where he stood. The black fox stood at attention, awaiting orders, and until given instructions to move, would not shift from his position even an inch. _

_Maltare turned to Fant and continued, "The Mindstamp procedure has held up flawlessly under all tested conditions. This subject is completely obedient, and will do whatever I tell him, without hesitating." Maltare turned to look the fox squarely in the eye, and received a neutral, blank stare in return. "Kneel," he commanded. _

_Without delay the fox got down on one knee in front of the human, causing a soft intake of breath from Fant. "Very impressive, Director, but what if you give orders or do something that would cause harm to the subject?" _

"_You anticipate me, General," Maltare said casually. Without warning, he turned and dealt a vicious backhanded blow across the fox's face, sending him sprawling to the ground. Blood droplets flew in an arc across the floor as one of the spikes on Maltare's glove carved a gash along his face, starting low on his left cheek, slicing up through his eye and ending at his forehead. The fox lifted one hand to his face in an effort to staunch the bleeding, and he encountered the ruined remains of his eye in the process. Maltare seemed to notice this, and bent down to examine the result of his actions. "What a bother, and after all the work of modifying that eye, also," he observed callously. He turned and gestured to an unseen camera and said, "Get a medical team down here to patch things up." _

_An hour later, the medical technicians had finished patching up the wound, with a wad of gauze in the now-empty eye socket to staunch any flow of blood or other fluids and a strip of cloth around the fox's head to hold everything in place. He had sat stoically through the whole thing, not moving since the injury nor making any sound whatsoever. _

_Maltare turned to Fant and said, "I apologize for the delay, General, but there is one more potential worry that I hope to alleviate with this last demonstration. As you might be aware, one of the biggest causes of the failure of the Mindstamp in previous cases was a strong emotional trigger for the repressed personality. As our agent had close connections to several highly placed individuals in the rebels' leadership, it is theoretically possible that contact with them could undo the conditioning and render this plan worthless. I plan to stress-test the effectiveness of this conditioning here and now, in a controlled environment where problems can be contained if they occur." He snapped his fingers and a pair of guards who had come in with the medics left the room to carry out his unspoken order. _

_A few minutes later, the sounds of a struggle filtered their way through the doorway to the black fox's ears. They had been recently enhanced, so he was able to detect new sounds long before either of the two humans could. Shortly afterwards, the guards reappeared and the reason for the struggle became clear. Between the two of them they held a snowy-white vixen, who was gamely fighting back with everything she could muster. Even as they came in she stomped down on one guard's instep, and when his grip on her arm loosened she raked her nails across the other one's face. They both swore violently, and one doubled her over with a punch in the solar plexus, while the other grabbed a hold of her shoulder-length hair and yanked it backwards viciously, drawing a pained gasp from the vixen's throat. Together they managed to force her into a kneeling position with her arms bent behind her back, keeping leverage applied to her shoulders to prevent her from being able to regain her footing or get her arms free. _

_Maltare beckoned the black fox over to a better viewing location, and then started pacing around the captive vixen. He bent down and extended a hand to lift her chin up to look at him, but she snapped at his hand and he pulled it back barely in time to avoid it being laid open. "You've caused me a great deal of trouble, my dear," Maltare told her. _

"_It's what I do," she snarled back at him, refusing to be intimidated. She was bold even in the face of grave danger, the black fox knew; but that thought oddly troubled him. How could he know such a fact about someone that, as far as he was aware, he'd just met? She continued, "You can't systematically repress whole races and expect them to meekly roll over and comply. You and the regime you serve have threatened too many people, Maltare; the Purists' fall is inevitable." _

_Maltare actually laughed at that statement; a hoarse, dry chuckle that sounded more like a hiss than a laugh. "And I thought I was finally going to hear something new, instead of the same tired old rebel propaganda." He knelt down in front of the vixen and said to her, "Our reign will last forever, and you and the rest of the sub-human scum that infest this planet will be put in your places. They will either submit or they will die. Unfortunately for you, however, your fate in this matter has already been decided." _

_He pulled a small but powerful blaster pistol from his belt, causing her lip to curl in contempt. "So you're going to shoot a helpless captive? Very bold of you, very brave." _

"_Oh, I won't be the one doing the shooting, much as I might like to," he told her. Maltare then turned to the black fox and offered the pistol out to him. "Show your loyalty to your master," he said. "Kill this traitor." _

_The fox took the proffered weapon and stepped in front of the kneeling vixen. Her light gray eyes widened with shock and recognition, and she blurted out, "Arlen! My God, what has he done to you?" The fox's hand had started to rise to point the business end of the weapon at her forehead, but at the mention of the name, his motion was arrested. _

_Maltare looked furious at the pause, and shouted, "What are you waiting for? Kill her!" _

"_Arlen, please, listen to me! Whatever he's done, you have to fight it!" Judging from the way the fox's hand wavered, it was clear that her words were having an effect, her appeal reaching out to the person he had once been. _

_Apparently Maltare noticed this as well. "Shut her up!" he bellowed. The guard on her left twisted her arm behind her at a painful angle, while the other one kicked her in the stomach. She cried out in pain, and Maltare shouted into the black fox's ear, "Kill her now! I order you!" _

_The gun wavered for a couple more seconds, but then he snapped the weapon up and fired twice. Both guards fell back with smoking holes burned into their foreheads. Maltare hesitated for a moment in disbelief before going for a remote in his pocket. The black fox spun around and saw the flat, rectangular device in the human's hand, and snapped off a quick shot at the hand it was held in. The energy beam hit the remote and melted it instantly, sending sparks flying and charring the skin on Maltare's hand. He snarled and reached for an alarm, but saw the look of murderous rage in the black fox's eyes and instead dove for the exit door. Fant, of course, had fled the moment things started to go wrong. Maltare hurried through and hit the close switch on the other side, causing the door to slam down with jarring force and making the fox cut his rush short, lest he be caught underneath the door when it slammed shut. _

_He pounded his fist on the door a few times, eliciting a ringing sound like a gong from the armor-quality steel; then ran back to where the vixen knelt on the ground gasping for breath. He gently took her by the shoulders and lifted her to her feet, and she threw her arms around him in a desperately passionate embrace. He returned it with equal fervor, and whispered hoarsely into her ear, "Selene, what are you _doing_ here?" _

"_I was hoping to find _you_," she told her husband. "You disappeared a few months ago, and I wondered what had happened, and then I heard rumors about you being held here so I… let myself be captured. I thought it was the best way to find you." _

"_That was reckless of you!" he told her. "It was madness to take such a risk!" She opened her mouth to argue, but then had the air forced from her lungs when he hugged her again. "Thank you," he whispered fervently into her ear, his voice raw with emotion. Arlen was aghast at the incredible gamble she had just made, but also profoundly relieved that she had been able to get through to him and break the Mindstamp conditioning that Maltare had him under. _

"_I'm just glad you're all right," she said, after he had set her back down on her feet and she had regained her breath. "What all's been going on?" _

_I, um…" Arlen put a hand to his temple, as though he were suffering from a migraine. "I can't remember much - it's all fragmented, like a bunch of pages tossed into a pile at random." He shook his head and told her, "I don't want to talk about it; let's just get out of here." _

_The white vixen didn't probe any further, knowing that the rumors she had heard were likely only a pale reflection of the horrors her beloved had probably endured. Instead, she moved to investigate the door that Maltare had fled through. It was locked, of course; but there was a control panel on the side they were on, so it was a matter of seconds for her to peel off the cover and cross some wires to get the lock to disengage. This also deactivated the pneumatic motors that would have normally lifted the door up and out of the way, but that was where her husband took over. Arlen handed her one of the laser carbines that he'd taken off the dead guards, then stepped over and slid his fingertips underneath the lip of the door. While being sure to lift with his knees and not his back, he slowly straightened up and lifted the door out of the way. _

"_My goodness, you've gotten strong!" He turned his head slightly and saw Selene staring at him with her mouth agape in stunned amazement, but she quickly recovered her wits and ducked underneath the door he was holding up. He turned carefully so that he was on the other side of the door from where he had started, and then let go and jumped back. The door slammed back down to the floor, the force of its descent sending spider-web cracks out from the point of impact. _

"_Watch your tail," she cautioned, a little after the fact. "So, where do we go now?" _

"_As much as I'd like to rip Dackar Maltare's heart from his chest with my bare hands," Arlen said, both hands balling into fists at the thought of what the human had almost made him do, "our priority should be to get the hell out of here. He's undoubtedly got guards on the way, and I don't know if he has any more dirty surprises in store if I happen to confront him again." _

_He stopped at an air vent set high into the wall and looked up at it pensively. He made a footrest by interlocking his fingers, and Selene stepped into his cupped hands and let him lift her up to the level of the vent cover. She undid the screws that held the cover in place and tossed it to the side, then pulled herself up and into the air duct. She backed away from the entrance, and Arlen sprang from the ground to the airway and caught hold of the rim of the duct, pulling himself in after her. The two of them started crawling through the passageway, and Arlen asked his wife, "How did you find me?" _

_She didn't look back to answer, but her voice echoed in the close confines of the air duct, letting his enhanced hearing pick up her words quite clearly. "A little while ago, the bodies of several significant members of the Resistance began to appear in various places. Each of them had died violently, but there was usually only one wound on the body, indicating that they were killed almost instantly and were likely taken by surprise. Later on, someone got a gain piece of footage that seemed to identify you as being the killer of one of them. I couldn't believe that you would do that willingly, and I noticed that all of the slain had been captured by the authorities beforehand. I reasoned that if I were captured myself I had a good chance of finding you again, so when the cell I was with was raided, I surrendered to the soldiers and they brought me here. So, what was Maltare trying to _do_?" _

_Arlen winced as he realized the answer to her question. "Maltare had me used as a test subject for a physical enhancement regimen, and then used a Mindstamp to make me into a completely loyal agent. I… I think the captive were used as test subjects, to evaluate my killing abilities. He must have dumped the bodies in the street afterwards to send a message to the resistance." He stopped suddenly as the realization of the situation sank in. "My God, what I almost did…" _

_Selene turned around to face him, displaying a great deal of agility and flexibility in the close confines of the duct. She cradled his face in her hands and gently touched her nose to his as she said, "But you didn't. You were able to resist the command he gave you." _

"_It was so _close_, though… It almost did happen, and I know I'd never have been able to live with myself afterwards." Arlen lifted his hands to cover hers, but he noticed that they were shaking slightly. _

"_There's no point in dwelling on what _could_ have happened, or what _might_ have happened, because they _didn't _happen," she told him sharply. "You were able to defy him and break the hold he had over you, and worrying about what might have been can only distract you from the present right now, so _stop_ it." _

"_Selene, I… You're right." _

_She smiled thinly at him in reply. "I usually am, you know." _

"_And you won't let me forget it, either," he replied, a smile finally beginning to show at one corner of his muzzle. _

_Selene smiled back at him and gave him a quick kiss and a nuzzle, and then said, "Come on. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can relax." He nodded in agreement and the two of them continued crawling through the air duct until they reached a vent that overlooked a vehicle garage. The white vixen took a peek outside through the slats of the vent then turned back to her husband to show him what she'd found. She held up one finger and then pointed down at the floor, indicating that she saw one guard and that he was standing right below the vent. Arlen grinned wickedly in response and motioned for her to move out of the way. She flattened herself to the side of the passage and scooted back as he slipped past her, then he placed both hands on the vent grill and gave it a mighty shove. There was a screech as the screws holding the grill in place pulled loose from their anchor points, and the guard looked up just in time for the vent to drop edge-first onto his face. _

_The human collapsed unconscious to the concrete floor, and Arlen dropped feet-first to the ground beside him. He caught his wife as she dropped from the air shaft and set her gently on her feet. She gave him another quick peck on his cheek, and then the two of them began to weave their way through the various tanks, hover scouts, and other assorted vehicles that filled the hangar. They had crossed about half the distance between the vent and the exit when Arlen's enhanced hearing picked up a soft 'click'. He reacted swiftly, grabbing Selene by the collar of her shirt and yanking her back behind the cover of a parked tank a bare fraction of a second before a blaster shot gouged a crater in the place she would have been standing. _

"_Sharpshooters," he whispered in her ear, before she could ask. He carefully poked his head up and took a swift count of their enemies before ducking back down to avoid being shot. A high-power bolt slapped into the armor of the tank just in front of where his face had been, splattering droplets of molten metal across the floor. "They're all over the upper catwalks," he told her. "Maltare _really_ doesn't want me getting loose." His shoulders slumped as he struggled against giving in to despair. "I don't see any way out of this, but we're so _close_…" _

"_Don't worry," Selene reassured him. "Help's on the way." She lifted her right wrist to display the chronometer on it. He stared at it in puzzlement until she pulled the unit away from the elastic wristband and revealed a flat, rectangular device hidden underneath it. _

"_A tracking device?" he inquired. _

"_Mm-hmm," was her prompt answer. "It wasn't active when I was captured, so its signature was hidden by the watch when they were scanning me for concealed weapons or com devices. I triggered it as soon as I had my hands free, when you took out the guards. We should be getting some backup any time now…" Her words were punctuated by a tremendous explosion as the doorway they had been heading towards dissolved into dust and flying debris. _

_Arlen could make out a pair of silhouettes through the haze but couldn't identify the individuals helping him and Selene escape. A hail of energy bolts blasted out from one of the new arrivals, sweeping across the sharpshooters stationed on the catwalk above and shredding through their relatively weak armor. The barrage of fire was punctuated by less frequent but much more powerful beams that slashed out of the dust and unerringly found their marks in the face or throat of a soldier. One of the silhouettes stepped into view, revealing the hulking figure of a mostly white wolf holding a Gatling-type weapon in his hands, causing Arlen to grin in recognition. The dust cleared enough for him to make out the other figure, but the jet-black avian was unfamiliar to him. He leaned back to his wife and said, "I'd recognize Zeke anywhere, but who's the bird?" _

"_An ex-Special Forces sniper named Edgar," she replied. "He deserted when things started turning against non-humans, and offered his services to the resistance cell I operated. He's not very chatty, but he's very good at what he does." The two foxes noticed that the attention of the men on the upper level was now firmly focused on the two interlopers, and seized the opportunity to add to the confusion. They popped up from the tank they had sheltered behind and opened up with their carbines on their opponents. _

_The weapons didn't work very well against the humans' armor at the ranges involved, but they did a wonderful job of sowing more chaos in the enemy's ranks, and the beams could still cut through unprotected flesh with ease. The soldiers up top broke and fled, unwilling to face such a hail of counter-fire. Once the upper levels were clear, Zeke shouted to the two fugitives, "Come on! The coast is clear, let's get out of here before they get back with reinforcements!" _

_Arlen and Selene broke from cover and hurried to the doorway where their comrades stood. They were almost clear when Arlen heard his wife shout, "Sniper!" His head jerked up to search for the new threat, and he saw a human taking aim at the two of them from the left side of the upper level. He had a long-barreled rifle meant for distance shooting, and a vision-enhancing visor that would aid in identifying targets in the relatively dim light of the vehicle bay. The human had been in his blind spot, which he hadn't had time to adjust for yet, and even as he lifted his carbine, he knew that there wasn't enough time to prevent the sniper from firing. He pulled the trigger and hoped that the distraction would spoil the shooter's aim. _

_Several things happened next in quick succession. He saw the barrel of the sniper's weapon discharge its lethal energy, saw his own burst of fire trace its way to the target, felt Selene slam into him from behind to knock him out of the way - and heard the sickening sound of flesh exploding under contact with a high-energy plasma bolt. As his world tumbled crazily around him, he still saw the line of bolts he'd fired walk their way up the sniper's chest, neck and face. The last one pierced through the man's visor and snapped his head back as he fell to the floor, and then the black fox hit the ground with a 'thud'. He could smell the stench of burnt hair and flesh and wondered why it didn't hurt – and then the awful realization hit him, and he turned around with an anguished cry. _

_Selene lay on the floor, smoke rising from a crater in her back. Her gentle gray eyes were wide in agony, the pupils constricted down to mere pinpoints from traumatic shock. She tried to lift herself back up, but her arms collapsed under the strain and she fell back to the floor. Arlen crawled over to where she lay and lifted her head to look into her eyes; she placed a hand over his and tried to hold onto his wrist, although the weakness of her grip betrayed the condition of her body. Her mouth moved as though she was trying to say something, but she could barely get out a whisper, and he couldn't hear her for the roaring in his own ears. From the placement of the wound, at least part of her left lung had been vaporized, and there was who-knew-how-much other tissue damage besides that. He simply crouched there, numb with shock, until a hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality. _

"_Dude, we gotta get out of here!" Zeke said. _

"_I'm not going anywhere," Arlen mumbled. _

_The hand on his shoulder tried to pull him up as the wolf repeated, "Come on, we have to go!" _

"NO!"_ Quick as thought the black fox spun around and hauled the wolf up off the floor by his collar, slamming him into the wall and snarling as he held him up there. Zeke looked down in surprise as he realized that his friend, who was only two-thirds his mass, was holding him at arm's length at least a foot off the ground without shaking at all. Adrenaline could only account for so much of that strength. As he held the wolf up there, Arlen regained enough clarity of thought to speak again; "I'm _not_ leaving her!" _

"_Then grab her and take her with us, but we have to go before reinforcements show up!" Zeke waited a moment, and when nothing happened, he gingerly tapped the fox's arm and said, "Um, could you put me down, buddy?" _

_That comment seemed to get through to the grief-stricken fox. He carefully lowered the wolf back to the floor then turned to pick Selene up off the ground. He only dimly heard the world around him; his focus was on making sure he carried his love as steadily as he could manage. The raven waved the rest of them out of the hole in the garage, out to where a light hover scout was idling for a quick getaway. Arlen carefully lay Selene down on one of the bench seats and felt tears flood his good eye as the vehicle started moving. "I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely into her ear. "This is all my fault." _

_The vixen reached a hand up to gently touch his muzzle as she whispered, "No; it was… my choice." She smiled at him briefly, then her head lay back and her hand dropped away as her life left her body. Arlen felt pressure building up in his chest, like a caged animal frantically struggling to be released. He threw back his head and howled in anguish, then buried his face in her fur and wept bitterly.

* * *

_Shadow finished his narrative at last, although he had no clear memory of what he actually said regarding his story. Amber sat next to him, her hands over her muzzle as tears glimmered in her eyes. Even the bounty hunter, Kursed, had averted her gaze and closed her eyes in consideration of his feelings. He felt... drained, as though relating the account of those events had sapped all the energy out of him. And yet, at the same time, he felt strangely better. He finally knew what his wife had been trying to tell him with her final breath; he had been too grief-stricken at the time to properly understand, but now he thought he did.

Amber looked up at him and said, "She loved you enough to risk her life to find you again, and to give her life up to save yours. And you loved her enough that you were able to defy Maltare's programming when he ordered you to kill her."

Kursed looked strangely pensive. "So, that explains… a few things," the blue vixen said, choosing her words with unprecedented care. "But, why does the Senate still not trust you? She did manage to free you from Maltare's control."

He was quiet for a moment before he responded. "The ostensible reason is that they are concerned about the possibility of hidden programming. The true extent of Maltare's meddling in my head is unknown, since I have no recollection of what happened, and the accounts of anyone else who was there can't be trusted at all. And the plain fact of the matter is I _do_ have innocent blood on my hands." He sighed and continued, "What I suspect the real reason is probably because Senator Vares approached me shortly after he started overtly supporting the rebels, and offered to use his political influence to help smooth my reintegration into society if I would do a few things for him. I declined, and after that was when he started his rather vitriolic opposition towards me."

"What sort of things did he want you to do?" Amber asked.

"He didn't elaborate, which was part of the reason I declined; but I suspect it was something along the lines of spying on political rivals for him, to dig up any dirt they might want to hide; things that he could use for political leverage." Shadow sighed and looked up at both vixens. "You may wish to distance yourselves from me; if he tries anything more extreme, I don't want anyone else to fall with me."

"I don't think so," Amber said hotly. "I don't know if you have hidden programming lurking in your head, and I don't care what an old scheming politician plans to do. But there is one thing that I _do_ know and care about, and do you know what that is?"

"What is it?" he asked dubiously.

Amber surprised him by leaning forward and giving him a fierce hug, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders and resting her head on his shoulder. "You're still my big brother," she said softly into his ear.

It was the perfect thing to say to him. Even as his arms came around her shoulders to return her embrace, he could feel layers of doubt and guilt fall away from his heart. They held that embrace for a while, reveling in the simple joy of being together as a family. Kursed, however, felt suddenly uneasy, and she hoped that the other two foxes' occupation with their reaffirmation of family bonds would keep them from noticing the turmoil in her own thoughts.

She hadn't thought much about Shadow's emotional reaction to the death of his wife, until Amber had made her comment about the depth of the love that he and Selene had shared. That statement had caused a couple of thoughts to cross her mind, and they stuck there like barbed splinters, digging their way in deeper the more she thought about them. The first was; "_Would anyone care enough about me to risk their lives like that?_" And the second was; "_Would anyone care about me enough to mourn my passing?_" The part that threatened to drive her mad was, she had the awful suspicion that the answer to both of those questions was, "_No_".

She was given a welcome respite from those unhappy musings by Shadow's voice, calling her by the nickname she had allowed him to use. "I'm sorry," she said, "my mind was elsewhere. You wanted to ask me something?"

He repeated his question; "What's your verdict?"

She gave him a thin, humorless smile. "You mean would I prefer to associate with you, or with a corrupt, amoral, scheming blowhard politician?"

He snorted a short laugh at that comment, guessing that her answer was about the same as Amber's, if for different reasons. Shadow paused to check his wrist-chrono, and then commented, "It's getting pretty late."

The two vixens looked up at his comment to see where the sun was in the sky. It was setting low to the horizon, washing the sky in the reds and oranges of dusk. Kursed looked back down to him and said, not quite mockingly, "Got somewhere you need to be?"

"We need to be getting home soon," he said in reply. "It's not exactly safe on the streets at night." His head tilted slightly to one side and he continued, "And I think you'd like to be getting home soon too, and get some rest after all the excitement of the past few days."

"Perhaps." She got up and started walking in the direction of the modest apartment she was currently renting in the city. Shadow and Amber likewise stood and began walking in the same direction she was. Feeling slightly wary, she turned and asked them, "Following me, are you?" Her eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion as she said this.

"Nope," Shadow answered evenly.

"We just happen to be going the same way," Amber added. "We need to catch a bus; it's too far to be comfortable walking all the way there." They travelled together for a few blocks, and then came to an intersection where their paths diverged. Shadow turned to Kursed and said, "See you soon?"

"Maybe," she answered, not really in the present at that moment.

He was quiet for a moment, and then offered, "Omega Squad will be having a little get-together at Tony's in a few days. It's just something we do to celebrate a successful mission, and one that we all came back alive from. You want to come to that?"

"I'll think about it." He looked as though he wanted to say more, but the words remained unspoken. Instead, he simply inclined his head in a respectful manner, and he and Amber turned to go. Kursed watched them for a moment before she turned to head back to her apartment, not really sure whether or not she wanted them to stay a little longer or not.

She made her way back to the complex that held her apartment, and took the outside stairs up to the third floor. Once there, she found her domicile and opened the door, stepping into the small foyer and taking a deep breath. She felt like she could finally relax, but then her nose caught the odor of something that definitely did _not_ belong in her apartment. It took her a moment to identify the source, and by the time she did, her sixth sense was screaming a warning. She turned to dive back out the door, but she had run out of time - as the world exploded into fire around her.

"So we're really headed home?" Amber asked her brother.

"Yes, we're _really_ going home this time," he replied. "It's a bit the worse for wear, but I've been spending my free time in the past few months fixing things up. It gave me something to do, and something to look forward to."

"That's great to hear," she replied enthusiastically. Amber hadn't been home in almost a year; first she, and her brother and her sister-in-law, had had to move to safer quarters when their involvement in one of the rebel movements had become known to the authorities, and then she had been captured a while after that and had spent about half a year in prison cells of one sort or another. The prospect of finally being back home, of sleeping in her own bed again, sounded almost too good to be true. "So, what are we going to do once we're there?"

"Hmm, well, since it's probably been a while since you had something to eat, how does a nice, home-cooked meal sound?" he answered, with a mischievous glint in his eye as he spoke.

"Arlen!" she said, the pained look on her face only partially feigned. "You know I just got out of prison, right?"

He laughed at that comment, even though it was a slight against his cooking skills. "All right then, how about I send out for pizza?"

"_Much_ better," she answered. Amber was quiet for a moment, and then asked, "So, what do you think of her?"

"What?" He was thrown off by the sudden change in subject.

"You know, our blue bounty hunter friend? What do you think of her?"

"I don't know _what_ to think," he told her. "She's beautiful, there's no doubt about that, but I pity the guy who would try to pick her up. The last male who hit on her got punched out. Sometimes she seems completely antisocial, and other times I wonder if she's trying to see if anyone cares enough to try t reach out to her." He turned her question back around and asked, "So what do _you_ think?"

Amber thought for a long moment about her answer before she finally replied, "I think someone hurt her in the past, someone she really cared about; so she's lonely, but at the same time she tries to keep everyone at arms' length to avoid being hurt like that again, and it's slowly tearing her apart inside." Amber sighed and said, "I wish there was something I could do to help, but I have no idea how."

He didn't reply to that assessment. It seemed that Amber had described the same impression he'd had of the young vixen who called herself Kursed. He suspected there was a bit more to the story than what his sister had voiced, however; the mere fact that she had chosen such a harsh-sounding name seemed more indicative of guilt than hurt feelings. He wondered how the two impressions were related, but guessed that neither of them would really know for sure unless Kursed decided to open up to one of them – and he wasn't placing any bets on that happening any time soon.

His ruminations were cut short by a distant rumble. He and Amber, as well as those around them, stopped and listened in order to identify the source of the sound. His sister was the first to voice her suspicion: "Hey, that sounded an awful lot like a-"

"-An explosion," he finished. Even as he said this, he noticed the flickering glow of a raging fire in the distance. "Come on", he said, starting back in the direction they had come.

"What if it isn't her?" Amber asked as she caught up with him.

"Either way, someone's going to need help." Together they started to run towards the scene of the bomb, both intent on providing whatever help they could, but both afraid that they would arrive too late to save anyone.

* * *

_A.N: Whew, another two months between chapters... but this one's finally up. _

_I guess the main purpose for putting the element of tragedy in Arlen's life was to create a point of empathy between him and Krystal. She's about to have a crisis of conscience, and Arlen and Amber will be there to help her through it. That will be the first step towards her reconcilliation with Fox. His tragedy also gives him a unique perspective on both sides of the conflict that started in the beginning of Command, over whether Fox did the right thing or not in forcing Krystal to leave the team, and whether she overreacted or not in her response to that. _

_Please _R&R!


	12. Past Regrets

**Chapter 11: Past Regrets**

Kursed managed to raise her staff and activate its energy shield a bare fraction of a second before the wall of fire reached and washed over her. The force of the explosion tore the door from its hinges and slammed it into the wall on the other side of the hallway, but the flames surged around her protective barrier without touching her. As quickly as the explosion began, it ended, leaving everything in her apartment blazing furiously. Kursed let the shield dissipate, and was left standing in a meter-diameter circle of untouched carpet amid an ocean of roaring flames –an ocean that began to surge in upon her island of safety the moment the protective energy barrier disappeared. Leveling her staff, she triggered the Ice Blast and began to suppress the flames that lay between her and the exit. She was almost out of the burning room when she remembered that there was something that she couldn't leave to the ravening fires, and turned back to retrieve it.

Kursed began to fight her way back through the flames towards the apartment's single bedroom. The lone window in the room had been blown out from the force of the explosion, but escaping through the broken window wasn't what she planned on doing. Hidden in the back of the closet was a fireproof box that contained all the possessions she still valued, though she hadn't opened it up in a long while. The box was too hot to touch at first, but a quick spurt of freezing air was enough to cool it down enough to handle safely. She grabbed the box and tucked it under her arm, then turned to make her way back out of the burning apartment and into the hall. Kursed wasn't overly bothered by the loss of the domicile - or most of the things in it - since she spent so little time there anyway, but the simple fact was that someone had found out where she lived and set a trap in her own home to kill her. That knowledge would be enough to rattle anyone.

She was out the doorway before she realized that there was no alarm sounding to warn people of the fire. Of course, if someone went through all the trouble to set up a firebomb in her apartment, they would probably want to make sure that no one would come to intervene until it was too late. Still, there were at least a dozen other tenants here, most of them families, and it would never sit well with her if she simply left them to the mercy of the blaze. If she could just find… there, there was a manual fire alarm on the far wall. She grasped the handle, hoping that this hadn't been sabotaged as well, and pulled down as hard as she could.

To her relief, it was still in working order and began to emit a shrill squeal that was echoed by other similar units placed around the building. The dictates of conscience satisfied, she then turned to the nearest stairwell and fairly flew down the two flights that led to ground level. As she headed for the exit, she could see a couple of families hurrying for the way out as well. There was none of the chaos or conflict that she would have expected in an emergency situation like this, which told her that they had prepared for this sort of thing in advance. While the fact that they _expected _a situation like this was certainly a little depressing, the fact that they knew how to handle it reassured her that everyone was more likely to make it out of the building alive and unharmed.

Once she was outside, she was able to turn around and see the damage that had been done to the building. Her own apartment was on the third of four floors, and she could instantly tell which one had been hers by the smoke and flames billowing out of the broken window. Her place was a total loss; whoever had planted the bomb had obviously wanted to make sure she would not escape the inferno, but had also not anticipated the energy shield built into her staff. Nonetheless, it had still been a very close call; and if she had been just a fraction of a second slower in getting it up, she would have been cooked inside and out in a heartbeat.

"Hey, Krys! You alright?"

Kursed turned at the sound of that nickname and saw Shadow and Amber running down the sidewalk towards her. A part of her was glad to see them, but another part of her resented the implication that she would need help. As they came close, Amber asked, "What happened?"

"Someone set a firebomb in my apartment," Kursed replied, with the tone of someone stating the obvious. "Fortunately, I was able to get my shield up before the explosion hit me." She paused for a second, and then said, "Don't tell me you both came running back solely on my account."

"Well, we heard the explosion and figured that _somebody_ would need help," Shadow replied evenly. "Is there anyone still in the building?"

"No," Kursed and Amber said at the same time. They looked at each other with bemused expressions at their stereophonic answer, and Kursed elaborated, "The fire started in my apartment, and someone had killed the automatic alarm system, but I managed to trigger a manual alarm and warn my neighbors. As far as I know, mine was the only place that fire broke out in, so everyone else should have had time to get to safety."

Further conversation was interrupted by the wail of approaching sirens, as an emergency response team came around the corner and stopped just in front of the apartment complex. The crew jumped out of the vehicle almost before it came to a stop and within no time was directing a stream of fire-retardant foam into the open window. At the same time, another group of workers was entering the building through the main entrance, in order to bring more fire suppressants to bear on the blaze from another direction. Judging from the speed with which both crews were operating, the fire would be under control within minutes.

"They're good," Amber commented into the silence.

"They've had lots of practice," her brother answered, a little glumly. "On the bright side, though, it looks like they'll be able to save the building, and no one will be sleeping outside tonight."

"Except _me_," Kursed growled. "I don't know if either of you noticed, but my place is trashed already. Even if they save the rest of the building, I won't have anywhere to stay." She looked back at the ruins of her apartment and was lost in thought for a moment, missing the whispered exchange that went on between the other two foxes. After a little while, she half-turned and asked them, "I don't suppose you could suggest a motel or somewhere I could put up for the night?"

"Actually, we could do one better than that," Amber replied. "How would you feel about crashing at our place?"

Kursed looked at the two of them in surprise, caught off guard by that offer. She scanned their surface thought patterns to see if they were trying to prank her, or setting up some other plan; but the offer was wholly sincere, as far as she could tell. Both of them stood there with their gazes on her, waiting for her answer. Curiosity, caution, fatigue, and suspicion all warred within her, but finally she came to a decision and said, "I don't really see why not."

Shadow looked a little surprised at her assent, but Amber beamed at the answer and said, "Great, then, let's get going!" Her brother hesitated a moment, looking back at the scene of the accident, and she asked him, "What's the holdup, Arlen?"

He turned to look back at her and asked, "You're sure we aren't needed here?"

"The emergency services crew has everything under control," she replied. "And weren't you the one saying the streets weren't safe at night? We need to get going." He mock-glared at her out of one eye at how she used his own words against him, but she simply smiled and held up her hands in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

He shrugged and said, "Well, 'safe' is a relative term anyways. If we're going, we'd better go quickly; all the freaks come out at night." Kursed lifted one eyebrow at his phrasing, but didn't need to ask what he meant. She knew all too well about the predators that roamed the streets under the cover of darkness; she didn't have very much to fear from them, but the average citizen would. Shadow turned and started back in the direction that he and his sister had come from, Kursed following behind them and keeping her senses alert in case someone tried to follow them, or finish what they had started at her apartment.

They managed to travel several city blocks before Kursed began to feel uneasy. She immediately identified the sensation as a warning from her sixth sense; someone was following them, probably several someones, and their intentions were far from friendly. She glanced up in Amber's direction, and noticed a similar apprehension in the younger vixen's face. Shadow was harder to read, but she could get enough of his thoughts to tell that he, also, knew they were being stalked. After another block's worth of travel, he finally stopped and called out, "There's no use in hiding; I know you're there."

There was a pulse of surprise from several sources at his pronouncement, but gradually seven individuals sauntered out of the shadows and took positions around the group; five in front of them and two behind. They were a mixed-species assortment, but all of them had several things in common – they were all scruffy, they all had multiple tattoos, and while their clothing was as ratty as their appearances, there was nonetheless a common theme among all of them. Kursed turned to keep an eye on the two behind them, while Shadow addressed the apparent leader of the gang, a mangy looking lynx featuring an impressive, if grotesque, array of facial piercings. "What do you punks want?"

"Hey, now, dat's no way t' speak to us," the leader said in a slightly slurred voice. "Dere's seven of us, and only three of you, and da bitches won't do ya much good, I don't think."

"No, you obviously don't," Shadow retorted, even as Kursed glared daggers at the gang leader for his choice of words to refer to her. "It wouldn't matter if there were seven, seventeen, or _seventy_ of you here; I'd still whip you all, so run along home before you get hurt." Behind him, Amber looked at him as though he'd lost his mind at the way he was provoking the gang.

"Aw, dat does it," the lynx said scornfully. "We was gonna let you go and just have some fun wit' da bitches, but now you gone and pissed me off. We's gonna rough you up _real_ good, so's you knows not to mess wit' us again." The group in front spread out to block the street, although they intended to let their leader have first crack at the black fox that had insulted them. Kursed scanned their minds as quickly as she could; all of them were brimming with pent-up aggression, and there was a strong likelihood that the gang had intended violence regardless of their quarry's reaction.

Shadow smiled as the gang leader put on a set of brass knuckles onto his right hand. It wasn't a friendly smile at all; it was more the smile a cat might give a mouse just before dispatching it. "Oh, you boys picked the _wrong_ day for this," he said softly as he settled into a combat-ready stance. "I am _not_ in a good mood right now." The punks either didn't notice, or didn't think he could do anything to seriously hurt them. Kursed and Amber likewise tensed up, preparing for the action that was sure to come. Kursed's hand drifted to her staff, ready to draw it at a moment's notice, while Amber brought her hands up to a defensive position and kept alert for any sudden moves on the part of their potential assailants.

Without warning the gang leader suddenly lunged forward, right fist cocked to deliver a devastating punch. Quick as thought, Shadow lifted one hand and caught the feline's fist in his own palm, stopping the punch cold and gripping his opponent's hand to keep him from withdrawing it again. Shadow allowed just enough time for the reality of the situation to seep into his opponent's mind before he clenched his fingers down, crushing his opponent's hand within his own. The crackle of breaking bones was drowned out by the agonized yowl from the lynx as every finger in his right hand snapped at once. The yowl was cut off a second later when Shadow jerked the lynx forward and swung his free hand up into the feline's solar plexus. The gang leader dropped to the pavement in a heap, holding his mangled hand and gasping for breath, and then was blasted to the ground in an unconscious heap when the black fox landed a roundhouse kick in his face.

Shadow expected that seeing their leader laid out so easily would have caused the gang to back off, or at least think twice about pressing the fight. However, either they weren't as smart as he thought they were, or else too angry at seeing their leader felled to think about the danger. The four remaining in front charged Shadow all at once, while the two behind the trio of foxes went after the females - one after Kursed and the other after Amber. Kursed extended her staff and slammed its cap into her attacker's right knee, then the left. The double impacts stopped the canine dead in his tracks, and she used the opening to lever the staff upwards, smashing the cap straight into his groin. The thug's knees turned to jelly and he collapsed to the sidewalk, whimpering in pain.

The rat that went after Amber thought that she would be easy pickings, but he was quickly taught otherwise. He lunged at her with the intent of grappling with her, but she stepped aside and avoided his grasp, then grabbed his wrist as he went by her and twisted it around behind his back. She applied enough leverage to force him off balance, and then hooked a leg between his and tripped him up, sending him sprawling to the ground. He struggle to get back up, but before he could regain his feet she gave him a kick that connected squarely with his snout and dropped him back to the pavement, this time out cold.

This left the females free and clear, and Kursed turned and started towards where Shadow was still beset by his opponents. Amber placed a restraining hand on her shoulder and said, "No, just watch." Kursed took another glance at Shadow, who was more than holding his own despite four-on-one odds, and decided to heed the younger vixen's recommendation this time.

The first thug to rush Shadow was a very burly human. He came in fast and low, intending to use his greater mass to pin the black fox in place and allow the rest of the gang the opportunity to beat on him. Shadow moved back just out of the reach of the man's grasping hands, then grabbed hold of his wrist with one hand while placing the other on the back of the man's neck and used his body as a pivot to direct his opponent's momentum into the side of a nearby building. The human slammed face-first into a wall and slid slowly down the side, leaving a smear of blood on the bricks.

The second thug was a cougar, who adopted a boxing stance that he must have picked up from watching endless reruns of old fighting movies. Shadow shook his head in amusement at his opponent's actions and parried his opponent's first two punches with his hands, then led with a jab at the feline's nose and then, when the cougar raised his hands to protect his face, delivered a pile-driving kick into his abdomen. The cougar was knocked flat on his back by the force of the blow, where he curled into a fetal position on the ground from the pain.

The last two members of the gang were mixed-breed canines, and similar enough in appearance that they might have been brothers. They were also armed, one with a length of pipe and the other with a switchblade. The one with the pipe swung first, putting as much force as he could muster into it in hopes of scoring a knockout blow. Shadow ducked out from underneath the blow and then put both hands together and pounded down on the canine's back as the momentum of the swing carried him past the fox. The hydrostatic shock of the impact temporarily paralyzed the target, and he collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut.

The knife-wielder advanced a little more cautiously – maybe he was a cannier fighter to begin with, or maybe the fate of his comrades had made him a little more wary. Either way, though, he was still way out of his league. The canine advanced with reckless speed, swinging the knife in short, sudden slices that were intended to keep Shadow at arm's length, where he couldn't so easily get into grappling reach. That strategy depended on both combatants having equal ability however; when one of them had hair-trigger reflexes and was twice as strong as the other, there was no contest. Shadow waited until his opponent had finished a slice and then snaked out a hand to grab his wrist, twisting his arm around behind his back and forcing it almost to the breaking point. The canine whimpered in pain and tried to bend his arm back so he could stab at the fox with the switchblade, but Shadow pressed a thumb into the pressure point of his opponent's elbow and popped it out of joint. The canine yelped and fell to his knees, dropping the knife and cradling his immobile arm in his good hand.

"Be a good boy and run along now, before you get hurt," Shadow said to his fallen opponent. "Well, any more than you already are, at least." He put his foot on the fallen switchblade to keep the canine from getting any ideas of retrieving it. The thug gave him a venomous glare, but saw the futility in further aggressive action and backed away from where the black fox was standing. Once he was satisfied that the canine was out of the way, Shadow bent down and picked up the switchblade. He closed it and turned it over in his hands, examining the item with an appraising eye, and then tossed it underhand to Kursed. "Here, spoils of battle," he said to her.

The blue vixen grabbed the weapon out of the air and looked at him curiously. "Why not keep it for yourself?" she asked him.

"It'd be a little redundant, don't you think?" he asked rhetorically, indicating with one hand the various blades that he had hidden on his person.

She shrugged and examined the weapon for herself. When closed up, it was easily concealable, and could serve as a surprise for any foe should a situation go sour. She tucked it into a pouch on her utility belt and said, "I'll keep ahold of it."

"What about the gang?" Amber asked.

Shadow looked around at the group of fallen hoodlums. Most of them were still moaning in pain over their injuries, and a couple of them were beginning to stir. "I don't think any of them are in any real danger," he told her. "We'll leave them be for now, and maybe they'll think twice before trying to attack the next passer-by." She nodded in reply, and the three of them continued on towards the bus stop.

They arrived without further incident and found themselves waiting for the next bus to arrive. In the process, Shadow became aware of Kursed giving him a strange look. He wasn't quite sure how to describe it – it might have been evaluating or admiring, or something completely else, but it wasn't her usual stony scowl, that was for sure. He raised one eyebrow in silent inquiry and she asked, "Why didn't you use any of your blades? You could have easily slain all of them, but you chose to fight on even grounds. Why?"

He shrugged and replied, "It wasn't necessary. If there had been more of them, or had they all been armed, then yeah, maybe I would have had to drawn some blood, but as it was they were no serious threat." He smirked and added, "Besides, it was good stress relief after getting raked over the coals by Senator Vares this afternoon."

"You handled them pretty well, especially since you were outnumbered."

"They were street punks," he said dismissively. "Nothing special." Then he did an almost comical double take and cupped one hand next to his ear, as though he were suddenly hard of hearing. "I'm sorry; was that a _compliment_?"

"Don't push it," she growled. He only snickered and resumed his study of the road where the bus would approach from. They waited in silence for a few minutes, until the rumble of an engine and the glare of headlights signaled the arrival of their transportation. They boarded once the vehicle came to a stop and the doors opened to let them on; Shadow paid the fare for the three of them then joined the two vixens in the back of the bus. They sat down as the lumbering vehicle began to move, and silence reigned for the first half of the journey.

The quiet made Kursed's thoughts turn inward, and her mood began to darken as time passed. This wasn't the first time that someone had tried to kill her since she'd taken up her current career, but it _was_ the first time that someone had been able to find out where she lived, when she wasn't out on a hunt at least. There were two possibilities: either someone was _very_ good at finding out secrets of that sort, or someone had sold her out. The trouble was, she wasn't in the habit of giving out her address to anyone, and the people that did know her here still didn't know which apartment she'd set up residence in. As disconcerting as it was, the most likely scenario was that someone had both the determination and the resources to find out where she lived, and set up a trap meant to kill her when she got back. Whether it was for her participation in the raid on Verdas, or her apprehension of Algus Fant, or her success in finding the remaining members of the Purist administration in general, was academic at best.

Shadow and Amber were talking quietly between each other, but she didn't pay their conversation much heed. A sudden thought occurred to her: what if whoever had sent the person who had given her the datascreen containing the information about Shadow's past had intended it as a delaying tactic, something that would sidetrack her for a few hours while they set up the firebomb that had obliterated her apartment? It would explain a few things, certainly, but there was little evidence to support that theory. She didn't sense any sort of malice in the mind of the messenger; though it was entirely possible, in the convoluted maze of politics, that he didn't actually know who wanted him to hand the datascreen off to her. Trying to figure out the culprit based on that was an exercise in frustration, but knowing that didn't make her stop trying, and her failure only served to deepen her already-black mood.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Shadow's voice calling her. She glanced up to see him looking at her expectantly, like he was waiting for an answer to a question. "What'd you say?" she replied.

"I asked what you would like on your pizza," he repeated his question.

She blinked in confusion. "What's a pizza?" she asked.

Shadow and Amber exchanged incredulous looks between each other before turning to look at her in amazement. "You don't know what a _pizza_ is?" Amber asked in disbelief.

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking now, would I?" Kursed replied a little frostily.

Amber didn't seem taken aback at all by her icy reply. "Pizza is a type of food item that humans brought with them when they settled here, and easily one of the best contributions that they've made to this world's culture. It's a flat crust with tomato sauce and cheese spread on top, and then anything else you want on top of that."

"I still have no idea what it tastes like," Kursed told her. "How would I know if I liked it at all, let alone what I wanted on it?"

Shadow thought for a moment before answering, "Okay, I'll order one extra cheese, that's the most basic kind. If you find that you like that, you can build from there, and if you don't, well, more for the rest of us, then."

"Whatever." She leaned back and closed her eyes, hoping to shut out the rest of the universe even for only a moment, to try to get her thoughts back in order. The clarity she craved continued to elude her, however, and after a little while she opened her eyes again to see Amber looking at her with an expression of wary concern and curiosity. "What do you want?"

"Were you always this…" the scarlet vixen's voice trailed off as she searched for the appropriate word, finally coming up with, "…antisocial?"

"No." For a moment, Kursed's mind was drawn back to memories of earlier days, better days, before everything had gone so completely wrong. Those memories only served to emphasize how much she had lost since then, how much more bleak and dreary her existence was now, and she forcefully shunted them away from her mind. "But I don't want to talk about it." She leaned back and closed her eyes again, effectively killing any further conversation.

Across the aisle from her Shadow finished placing his order and put his comm link back in his pocket, then he and Amber regarded each other with silent looks. "Something's bothering her," Amber said softly to her brother.

"Obviously," he replied in the same tone. "But she's been in moody pretty much all the time I've known her, so what's new?"

"No, this is something different," Amber told him, "something recent. I… I'm worried about her. I wish there was something I could do to help."

"Perhaps there is," he said. "But unless she feels like opening up to one of us, I don't think there's much either of us _can_ do right now."

If the cerulean vixen overheard the exchange, she gave no indication. As the ride continued, the density of the buildings they passed began to decrease significantly, as they left the main city area and entered the outlying suburb. Shadow tapped the button to let the driver know that their stop was coming up. The bus drifted to a halt at the designated location and the three of them disembarked by the rear door, and then started walking down the sidewalk towards their destination once the bus had left. "How much further do we have to go?" Kursed asked after a few moments.

"Not much farther," Shadow replied. "Just a few more blocks or so left to walk." The rest of the walk went by in complete silence, and Kursed took the opportunity to look around at the houses and other structures that lined the street. Judging from the quality of the homes that she could see, this was a fairly well-to-do neighborhood, although some of the houses looked like they had suffered significant damage over the course of the civil war. Every now and then, they passed by a spot that had a pile of debris instead of a building, a grim reminder that some people had fared worse than others in the course of recent events.

After walking for several more blocks along the main road, Shadow turned onto a side street. Near the end of the pavement was their destination- a two story home that also featured a fairly large yard. It was plain to see that it had been a nice place, but it was also plain to see that it had not escaped the ravages of violence, either. One of the walls looked like it had just recently been repainted, and the large picture window that faced the street on that side had been replaced by a piece of plywood. The front garden had once featured several beautiful bushes and small trees, but all of them had been demolished recently, leaving only stumps and splintered branches as indication of what had once been there.

"Looks a bit the worse for wear," Kursed commented offhandedly.

"It looks better than it did before," Shadow replied evenly. "I've spent my free time when I haven't been working at Tony's or hunting down remnants of the Purist administration restoring my home back to the way it used to be. But supplies are getting expensive, since everyone else is doing pretty much the same thing, and I don't have a lot of money to spare."

"What about the trust fund that Mom and Dad had set up for us?" Amber asked him.

"I think that's been frozen," he answered bluntly. "I tried to access it several months back, and I couldn't get past an 'account terminated' message. I'm not sure when it happened, or why, but the bottom line is that working at Tony's is the only source of income I have right now, and it's barely enough to cover living expenses." He turned back to the door and unlocked it, then pushed it open and gestured with a wave of his arm. "Ladies first?"

Amber strode though the door immediately; Kursed followed shortly thereafter at a more reserved pace. The blue vixen stopped shortly after the entryway and surveyed what she could see of the house. In front and slightly off to the right was a stairwell that led to the upper story of the house. The ground floor branched off to the left and the right from the entrance. To the right was the dining room first, and the kitchen after that, situated along the back of the house and halfway under the stairwell. To the left was the living room and den, and against the back wall of the den was a large window that looked out over the back yard, although there wasn't much to see on a dark and relatively moonless night like this one. Presumably the bathrooms and bedrooms were upstairs.

Amber took off up the stairs and down the hallway to her own bedroom. Shadow entered and closed and locked the door before turning to Kursed. "We can set up a guest room for you right now if you want. It'd give you a place to set your stuff down, too."

She simply shrugged in reply. "Eh, why not?" He led her up the stairs and past one bedroom and what appeared to be a study, to a small but decently-furnished room halfway down the hall. There was a small dresser against one wall, a bed against the other, and a desk situated at the far wall under the window. The bed and desk were both bare, since no one had been using this room before. Kursed set her small box of possessions down on the desk and waited while Shadow retrieved a set of bedcovers from the linen closet just down the hall. Within a few minutes he had covered and made up the bed, complete with a mattress cover, fitted sheet and loose sheet, and a blanket and comforter on top. The whole setup looked remarkably inviting, and a part of her wanted to do nothing more than flop down on the covers and go straight to sleep.

Hardly had he finished, though, when there was a chime at the front door. "That'll be the pizza delivery," Shadow commented. A second later, footsteps could be heard as Amber raced down the hallway and stairs to the door, and Shadow added dryly, "And that would be my hungry younger sister." He descended the steps at a slightly more sedate pace, checking in his pocket along the way to make sure he had enough money to pay for the pizza delivery. He opened the door and handed the money over to the young female otter standing on the step, while Amber took the three boxes that he had in his hands and hurried as quickly as she could into the dining room. After the delivery girl had gone, Shadow shut the door and followed Amber into the dining room, where she had already set the pizza boxes on the table and was rummaging through the cabinets in the kitchen looking for some plates and drinking glasses. Gathering three of them in her hands, she hurried back and set them out on the table, and then the three of them took their preferred pieces out and began eating.

Under other circumstances, Kursed supposed she would have enjoyed the meal, but tonight she found that she had little appetite. For some reason, she just couldn't bring herself to enjoy the meal. After eating only half of her slice, she pushed her chair away from the table and said that she wasn't hungry. "I'll be upstairs in my room if you need me," she told them. Both of them gave her concerned looks, their worry for her evident even to a non-telepath. She tried to give them a reassuring explanation, but suddenly found that she couldn't meet their eyes. Averting her gaze to the tiled floor, she turned and ascended the stairs without further comment, hurrying as quickly as she could to the room that she had set up in. It seemed that this meal was something of a celebration for the two reunited siblings, and she didn't want to spoil it with her bleak mood.

Kursed shut the door as soon as she was inside her room, and then moved to sit on the bed. She unlaced her shoes and slipped them off her feet, then pulled off her socks as well and lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She simply lay there for a while, until a stray thought occurred to her. Sitting up again, she regarded the small, rectangular box that held all the things she could still call her own in the universe. She had nothing else; no home, no family or friends, not even a mission or purpose. Sighing as depression started to sink down on her, Kursed slid over to where she could reach the box and picked it up. It was supposed to be fireproof and impact-resistant, but she wanted to make sure that all of the things inside it were still intact. They were, after all, the only things she had left.

It took a couple of minutes to input the security code that would allow her to access the contents of her strongbox. Once that was done, she carefully lifted the lid and inspected the contents, lifting each piece out one at a time and making sure they were all undamaged. There wasn't really much inside. The first things she came to were the remaining pieces of the ceremonial jewelry that she wore when on Cerinia. Most of the larger pieces, like the arm and leg bands, she kept in a safe place nowadays, though she usually wore the tiara and necklace when she wasn't bathing or asleep. These comprised the bulk of the items inside the strongbox. There was a slot for her staff when she wasn't using it, but nowadays she had it with her every waking hour, and hadn't put back in its slot in several years. A small paper envelope at the bottom was the only other thing left inside. A cold voice in her head warned her not to pick it up, that only pain awaited her if she opened it, but her hands seemed to move almost of their own volition as she lifted the envelope up from the bottom of the box. The open end was on the bottom, so the contents spilled out across the bedcover when she tilted it to a vertical position. Kursed's eyes flicked down to see what had fallen out, and then they widened as she beheld what had been inside.

It was a stack of photographs, an assortment of various scenes from her life when she lived in Lylat. All of them were of happier times, and back when they were first made she'd placed each of them in the box as a collection of fond memories. Now, however, they only served as a pointed reminder of what she no longer had. Hastily she gathered them back up in her hands and stuffed them back in the envelope, trying her best not to look at them too closely. She thought she had gotten them all until one stray picture near the edge of the bed caught her attention. She picked it up to put it away with the others, but froze as the light from the room's single lamp fell across it and she saw the image it held.

It was a picture of her and Lucy Hare, a few months after the two of them had met. The pink-furred lapine female had one arm thrown around the blue vixen's shoulders in a friendly gesture and a broad grin on her face. She herself was smiling for the camera as well, one hand lifted as if in greeting while the other rested on Lucy's nearer shoulder. Written in black marker in one corner were the words, "Lucy and Krystal - Best Friends Forever".

Forever hadn't lasted nearly as long as she had thought, however. Kursed groaned aloud as she remembered the least time she had seen Lucy Hare. Their parting had been decidedly less than friendly…

* * *

_Krystal took a look around at Lucy's apartment in one of Fichina's domed cities. It was only lightly decorated, which seemed appropriate as Lucy tended to spend most of her time at the University, where she was an astrophysics teacher, of all things. Lucy Hare was a complex person; people who looked at her somewhat tomboyish nature seemed to ignore her obvious femininity, people who saw her femininity seemed to overlook her sharp intellect and can-do spirit. Krystal hadn't overlooked any of those aspects, and in fact had found a steadfast friend in the young lapine female shortly after she had officially joined Star Fox. It wasn't until after they were introduced that Krystal had found out that Lucy was the daughter and only child of Star Fox veteran Peppy Hare, whose gentle wisdom and easygoing manner had helped the Cerinian vixen transition more easily into life on Corneria. The two of them had hit it off almost immediately, and had maintained their friendship over the years despite the many other calls on their time. _

_Now, in the middle of the Anglar War, Krystal had come to visit her lapine friend again. She and the rest of Star Wolf had set up base on the outskirts of Fichina's habitable zone, far enough away that no one was likely to stumble across it and report that a group of wanted outlaws was hiding out on the planet's surface. Wolf was currently off with Fox McCloud, of all people, who had come to Fichina a few days ago saying that he wanted to fly alongside his longtime rival. Wolf had challenged Fox to a dogfight and been shot down (again), and then had accepted the offer as an opportunity to keep Fox preoccupied with other things while the rest of Star Wolf kept searching for the device that was supposed to make their ultimate victory possible. Krystal had voice the opinion that the device was located on Titania, but had been unable to provide any sort of evidence to back up her claim, so none of the rest of her new team was willing to move to investigate Lylat's biggest sandbox just yet. _

_Despite the time that she had spent with them, Krystal still hadn't gotten used to being around the members of the renegade merc squad. Leon wasn't one for socializing, and Panther seemed more intent on trying to woo her than anything else. She'd warmed up to him initially, but mostly because she'd been lonely after Fox dumped her and Panther said the things she wanted to hear. He kept trying to subtly coax her into bed with him, though, and while she was lonely she wasn't _that_ lonely. The end result, though, was that she was longing for a familiar and friendly face. Learning that Lucy had taken up a teaching position at the University here on Fichina, she had discreetly arranged for the two of them to meet up at her apartment and talk together. Lucy had had a couple of things she still needed to take care of, so Krystal was waiting in her living room for her to finish up. _

_Her introspection was interrupted by the chime of her wrist-communicator. Hastily she answered the call, hoping that Lucy didn't hear the chime and come see who was calling. There was only one of a very few possible individuals who would be calling her at this point in time, and she was reasonably sure that Lucy wouldn't approve of any of them. Her guess was confirmed a second later as the one-eyed face of Wolf O'Donnell coalesced into being above her wristcomm, which projected a six-inch image of the lupine warrior from the shoulders up. Krystal moved to a place where she hoped that Lucy wouldn't overhear the conversation and asked Wolf in a harsh whisper, "What are you calling me now for?!" _

"_Sorry to interrupt your holiday, Princess, but I've got good news and bad news," Wolf's gruff voice said over the speaker. "The good news is I know where the device is now. You were right; it's on Titania." _

"_That's good," Krystal said without any emotion in her voice. "Let's go get it then." _

"_And there's the bad news," Wolf continued. "Apparently that annoying frog off your old team somehow found out about its location as well, and he told old General Hare, who told McCloud and the birdie where to start looking for it. We're already in orbit around Titania, and about to start searching." _

_Krystal gritted her teeth and growled softly at this news. This could ruin everything she'd been working for over the past couple of months, unless… "Do you want me to get Panther and Leon and head over to Titania to chase them off?" _

"_No, there are too many Anglars around," Wolf answered her. "If you all showed up now, we'd have to fight Star Fox as well as the Anglars, and we can't afford a three-way battle. We'd probably lose." _

_Krystal growled again as she tried to think of a solution to the problem facing them. After a moment, she smiled coldly and said, "I have an idea: let Fox and Falco do the hard and dangerous work of searching for the device, and then once they find it you can swoop in, grab it, and bring it to Venom. You'll be able to clear the way to the Anglar Emperor and defeat him, and Lylat will hail Star Wolf as the heroes of the day this time." _

_Wolf's good eye widened with surprise at Krystal's scheme. "I never would have expected something that cold from you, of all people. You must _really_ have it in for McCloud." _

"_Well, you know what they say: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" she said icily. "And I don't want you to kill Fox; I want him alive to realize the mistake he made when he cast me away." _

"_So you want me to tell him that this was your idea?" Wolf's tone was neutral betraying neither aversion nor interest in the scheme. _

_Krystal thought for a moment before answering. "Yes. If he thinks he doesn't need me around, I want to make him see how wrong he is." _

"_Can do. Wolf, out." The hologram of Wolf's face faded, and Krystal turned her comlink off. It was then that she became aware of another presence nearby, and whirled to see Lucy standing in the doorway, her expression a mixture of shock and dismay. The blue vixen felt guilt rise up in her chest at what she'd been caught doing, but she smothered it beneath a show of indignation. "Were you eavesdropping on me?" she asked defensively. _

"_Every word," Lucy said, in a tone barely above a whisper. "Krystal, what are you _doing_?!" _

"_Making Fox see the error of his ways," was Krystal's flat reply. _

"_You're letting your hurt feelings get in the way of your judgment. This isn't going to solve the problem, Krystal; it's only going to make it worse. This isn't like you." Krystal turned to try and leave the room in an attempt to avoid the growing confrontation, but Lucy moved to block her path and continued, "Fox has lost so many people he loved over the years, he was probably afraid of losing you as well. He wasn't thinking straight when he dropped you from the team!" _

_Krystal glared at her in anger. "You're taking his side!" _

"_There is no 'his side' or 'your side' to me!" Lucy fairly shouted. "You're my best friend, and I love Fox as a brother, and I don't want to see either of you hurt!" _

"_Then you should have said something when he dumped me!" _

"_Oh, believe me, I'm going to bust his chops good when I see him," Lucy told her. "Regardless of his reasons, it was still a dumb decision. But there's a difference between taking him to task for poor judgment and scheming with outlaws to set him up for humiliation. If you give him time, Fox will realize his mistake and apologize, but if you go through with this you can kiss any chance of reconciliation goodbye!" _

_For a moment, Krystal considered listening to Lucy's advice, but then she recalled the night Fox had told her he was kicking her off his team and fresh anger welled up within her chest. She shook her head and replied, "He's too proud; he'll never admit he was wrong unless I show him how bad he's screwed this up. He seems to think that he can do it all without me; well, I plan to prick his ego and make him realize just how much he needs me." _

_Lucy's jaw dropped at her friend's coldly spoken intentions. "By using him and then discarding him?!" she asked in disbelief. "And rubbing his nose in the fact that it was your idea on top of that?! You're not going to prick his ego; you're going to break his heart!" _

"_Like he broke mine when he tossed me aside?!" Krystal retorted hotly. "He tells me he loves me, and then not three days later, he throws me out! If he shows up at Venom and begs for forgiveness then _maybe_ I'll consider it, but otherwise he and I are through! For good!" _

_Lucy stared at Krystal in complete shock at this ultimatum. After a moment, Krystal turned and started walking to the front door, intending to leave. Lucy grabbed ahold of her arm and tried to stop her, but the blue vixen jerked her arm out of her group and shoved her back a couple of paces into the wall. "If you aren't going to help me, then stay out of my way." _

_Lucy's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she could finally speak. "I _am _trying to help you," she whispered sadly. "But you've let hatred consume your heart… I don't even _know_ you anymore." A tear began to form in the corner of her eye, but Krystal turned away before she could see them start to fall. The blue vixen walked out the door and onto the street, heading back to where the rest of Star Wolf waited in order to get ready to head to Venom. Try as she might, though, she couldn't shake the image of Lucy's face, or the last words she heard from her one-time best friend.

* * *

_

Kursed let the picture fall from numb fingers. Her eyes squeezed shut, fighting to keep tears of shame from escaping. This was the cold, hard truth that she had been oblivious to until just now: in pursuing revenge against Fox McCloud, she'd also turned her back on everyone else in Lylat who had once called her a friend. She couldn't breathe; it felt as though a giant invisible hand had its fingers wrapped around her chest, slowly squeezing her ribs until she gasped for air. "Lucy," she whispered, "I'm so _sorry_!"

Deep inside her heart, a dam burst. All of the emotions that she had been trying to repress came boiling up in a flood of hurt, grief, and regret. Kursed closed her eyes in an attempt to keep her tears from leaking out, but this time they would not be stopped. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she recalled the accusations thrown at her by the citizens of Lylat in the months following the defeat of the Anglars and the revelation of her new affiliation with Star Wolf. "They were right," she whimpered. "I _am_ a traitor." She threw her head back and wailed aloud, then curled up into a ball on the bed and buried her face in her hands as her body was wracked by muffled sobs.

* * *

Shadow and Amber had finished their late dinner and were in the process of cleaning after the meal. There wasn't that much washing that needed to be done, but the leftover pizza had to be put away so it wouldn't spoil. Shadow debated what to do with the slice that Kursed had left half-eaten on her plate, but eventually decided to cover the dish and see if she felt hungry later. No point in wasting what was otherwise perfectly good food.

They were almost done with the cleanup when Amber suddenly gasped and dropped a plate into the sink. The clatter brought Shadow's attention around to her, but his demand to know what was going on froze in his throat as he saw her expression. "What… what's going on?" he asked, more gently than he had at first intended.

"Our guest," Amber whispered softly. She had a distant look on her face, like her mind was elsewhere, and her expression was drawn tight with concern. "She…" Amber fumbled for the words to express what she was feeling, until the answer hit her like a thunderbolt; "She's in torment!"

Shadow immediately dropped what he was doing and raced to the stairwell, grabbing hold of the end of the banister and using it to sling himself around and up the stairs without slowing down. Amber followed close behind him, acutely aware of the waves of mental anguish pouring out of the room above them. Neither of them knew what had happened to trigger such a reaction in their guest, but neither of them was willing to stand by and let her suffer by herself if there was anything they could do to help her.

When Shadow opened the door to the guest room, the first thing he saw was Kursed, sitting on her bed with her back to the door and curled up with her knees by her chest, her shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs. He approached slowly and carefully, not wanting to startle her in her emotionally reactive state. He stopped beside her and knelt by the bed, asking gently, "What's wrong?"

"Empty…" she whispered without looking up at him.

"What's empty?"

Each phrase of her response was punctuated by a sharp gasp, as though breathing and speaking pained her. "My life... my heart… my future... _Everything_! I have nothing… I _am_ nothing!" With that last outburst, she buried her face in her hands, trying desperately to wall away the pain that threatened to overwhelm her.

Shadow said nothing in reply to her, but simply reached out a hand and gently placed it on her shoulder. Her head jerked up sharply and turned to look at him with that contact, and for a moment he thought she was going to take a swing at him; but then the last walls of resistance in her heart broke and she practically threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder and weeping brokenly.

Shadow was taken aback by her reaction, but he quickly recovered his wits and put his arms gently around her shoulders, holding her close as she wept against his shoulder. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and shoulders in response as her breath came in short, ragged gasps - clinging to him the way a drowning person would cling to any hope of rescue. In a sense, the analogy was quite appropriate; she was drowning in guilt, shame and remorse - and he was the only thing keeping her from going completely under.

Shadow carefully got up from his kneeling position and moved to sit next to her on the bed. Amber slid in on the other side of the distraught vixen and gently placed a comforting hand on her back, between her shoulder blades, offering her own support to this suffering soul. The three of them stayed like this for quite a long while, until Kursed's sobs dwindled away to just an occasional sniffle, and she lifted her head to look Shadow in the eye. "Feeling any better?" he asked her softly.

"A little," she replied. She was quiet for a log moment, and then said, "You want to know what… this was all about." It was a statement, not a question.

"I wouldn't mind," he said gently. "But if you don't want to talk about it…"

She looked down at the floor for a second before bringing her head up to meet his gaze. "You trusted me with your deepest secret… so I believe I can trust you with mine. I'll tell you everything… tomorrow. Right now, I just want to go to sleep." Shadow nodded in understanding. She looked worn and haggard, as though her emotional outpouring had drained her of every last bit of energy in her body. Her motions were slow and languid, and it was all she could do to keep herself up. He pulled the covers back for her, and she snuggled down underneath them before looking back up at him. "Thank you… for caring," she said softly.

"You're welcome," he answered amicably. "It was the least I could do for you." A slightly awkward silence followed for a few minutes, but then she propped herself up on one elbow and looked up into his eyes. "Why?" she asked softly.

"Hmm? Why what?"

"Why did you… do what you did? You could have easily left me to my pain, but instead you helped me through it."

He thought carefully for a minute before responding, trying to find the words to accurately express his feelings. "That look you had in your eyes… I've seen it before - in the mirror."

Her eyes widened slightly at that statement, and then her expression softened slightly, as she looked down at the covers. "You … understand," she said, more to herself than to anyone else.

After another, longer silence, Shadow stood up and turned towards the door. "Well, I imagine you want to get some sleep, so I'll leave you some privacy." Amber stood up to leave too, causing Kursed to sit up suddenly and shout, "Wait!"

They both turned around to look at her, making her feel more than a little embarrassed at her exclamation. She continued in a more subdued tone, "I… really don't want to be alone right now."

"I can keep vigil for the night," Amber spoke up.

Shadow turned to regard her skeptically. "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"I'll be fine," she reassured him. "Besides, I probably shouldn't leave the two of you in here unchaperoned right now," she added with a grin.

"Scamp," her brother growled as he snaked an arm around her shoulders and ruffled her hair into a royal mess. Amber squirmed out of his grip and glared at him in mock indignation, using her fingertips to try to smooth her hair back down into some semblance of order. He grinned at her reaction, then looked down to where Kursed lay, watching them with a slightly amused grin on her muzzle. "Well, good night, uh…"

"My name… is Krystal," she told him.

"Krystal," he repeated, rolling it around in his mind a little. "That's a beautiful name." He brushed a hand over her shoulders and murmured, "Good night, Krystal."

"Good night… Arlen," was her reply. He smiled slightly in response and left the room, presumably to head to bed himself. Krystal snuggled back beneath the covers and lay her head down on her pillow while Amber took a seat in a chair that stood in front of the desk positioned against the back wall. The cerulean vixen looked up briefly at her watcher, grateful for her company at this time. "Good night, Amber."

"Good night, Krystal," Amber replied warmly. "Sleep well."

"I hope so," Krystal murmured in reply, before settling down for the night. Given her recent emotion rending, she expected to toss and turn for a long while; so it was a bit of a surprise to her when she fell asleep almost immediately. The last thing she could recall before she dropped off was Amber, sitting in the chair and softly humming a gentle tune, keeping watch over her in case she needed anything - and for the first time in a long time, Krystal knew there were people she could trust absolutely.

* * *

_Author's notes: I actually started this chatper back at the beginning of summer and have been working on it in tiny increments 'til now...^^; I have several other stories that I work on as well, and work and college to juggle along with those. For everyone that has waited this long for the next chapter of this story, I apologize for it being so long, and I hope you enjoy this latest installation of Sojourn's End. _

_If anyone is curious, I'd recomend Skillet's song "Falling Inside the Black" as a companion piece for the latter end of the chapter... it seems to capture Krystal's emotions pretty well.  
_


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